The village turns out to have a very helpful Witch Coven on the south side of town, who volunteers their massive cauldrons for the Soup Kitchen effort, promising that they have been thoroughly cleaned since the last potion-making effort.
The city isn't exactly large, only about five thousand people, but by rough estimate, they will need three hundred gallons of soup to feed that many.
"We need every large cauldron and oversized soup pot to the old Druid's tree as soon as possible." The mayor calls out, using a spell to amplify his voice.
Many adventuring groups carry a ten-gallon pot with them, so there are a number of them in town, as well as the ones owned by the restaurants. In theory, every ten-gallon pot will serve a hundred or more, and portions of magical beast meat are very filling, so they will need even less, with a single bowl a day being more than enough energy to keep most transfers going if the soup is heavy on meat.
The call also brings dozens of chefs, who get to work chopping the three hundred kilo bodies of the Purple Leopards into small pieces, as well as slicing potatoes. It's a huge amount of work to cook for an entire army, or city as the case is today, but these are all professionals who have the experience with serving large numbers to get it done.
It's not practical to bring the entire city here, so once the stews are prepped the restaurants will bring the pots back to their business to cook and serve them. The news is spreading fast through the city, along with a message from the guards to find everyone who isn't capable of making it to one of the distribution sites and ensure that they get fed.
Nobody knows how long it will be until things start getting back to normal, but setting up soup kitchens has made both Prana and the Mayor very popular people today, much to the dismay of the other candidates for Guardian. Their best bet now is to emphasize the fact that the Guardian needs to protect the city as well, and focus on their combat powers.
"I will tell the Echoes that we are staying here for a few days, so you can get settled in and make a proper bid for Guardian. I think I can create a spell that will help you win as well, I just need a bit of time, since I still haven't finished my training in Spell Crafting." Cain tells Prana as the last of the pots, the enormous cauldrons of the witches' coven, go out to be cooked and served.
Those two cauldrons make up a third of the city's total, being over fifty gallons each, so the coven house is about to become a very, very popular place for the day. Like the Druid, the Coven isn't usually big on visitors, but they have seen the chance to rehabilitate their public image from sketchy potion makers to misunderstood local alchemists.
Before today, most of their potions were exported, since the locals had such a low opinion of the coven. But now, they're hoping that at least the local hunters will buy from them until the trade routes are open again.
The witches have a plan for that though. While they were helping get the stew ready, Prana mentioned the number of hunters at the farm, and how they are building up new ones to help out. The witches make transport bags that can hold multiple items, or at least they can if they have the materials. If they can convince the hunters from Cain's farm to stop in and make deliveries for pay, they can bring back the trade routes in only a few days' time, for a small upcharge of the final sale price, but without the farmers and crafters needing to travel.
It's not a terrible idea, and the hunters are often out for multiple days. Hunting until their inventory is full and then coming back home to relax a while is the sort of lifestyle most of them enjoy and the one they were living before things changed.
It has led to a large tent city springing up around the farm since it's not worth the trouble to build houses for everyone who is in and out, but it's a good system overall. Plus, coming back only when they're out of the special potions and their inventory is full means fewer days of experiments. They haven't been seriously injured yet, but some of the concoctions that the Echoes have come up with were clearly designed by a species with no taste buds.
That style of travel is also how the farm has learned so much about the cities that have fallen to the beasts. The hunters either tried to stop in and saw the destruction for themselves, or the refugees made it to the farm if the city was one of the closer ones.
A representative of the witches stayed behind after everything else was done, so she could talk to Cain about her plan. It is clear that despite his casual attitude, he is the one officially in charge of the farm. It will also give them a chance to meet this new candidate for Guardian, and they have high hopes for her since the others have proven to be lacking in the eyes of the witches.
"Let's retire to the Druid's house for the evening. We can chat and I can work on the gift I am making for Prana." Cain declares, leading the group inside while the Mayor and his guards say their goodbyes to the Companions.
The soup is served, and there is nothing left to steal here, so they don't need the guards anymore. Not that they actually needed them in the first place, with Cain's ability to summon so many Mythic Grade Demons.
Once they all get sat down, Cain announces his plan. "I'm going to modify a vine whip spell so that Prana here can have a Mythic Attack Magic. She's already adept in vine usage and can coat them in poisons for paralysis and damage, so having more lethal vines as the base should make her both great at crowd control and solid for area attacks."
"You can just do that?" Prana asks, confused.
"In a certain way, yes. If you just needed an Ancient Quality Spell Book, it would be no big deal to simply write one based on the ones I already know. But to get one that's just right and Mythic Quality will take some more effort." Cain explains.
To grant her a Mythic ability, he will need to use [Modify]. But in order for it to be just right, he will need to use Spell Crafting and learn it himself first. Unless he uses a vine attack that is already Mythic instead. She does have a variety of spells that enhance it, so that is also a possibility. It would still need [Modify] though since he doesn't have the skills to write a Mythic book with inscription.
Cain opens his collection of summons within his interface and searches for Mythic quality vine-type attacks. There are a few among the Demons, and a variety of tentacle attacks that might work like vines for a treat.
"Prana, do you have a moment to do an experiment? I know a few good tentacle attacks that might work like vines for a Treant." Cain suggests, making everyone look at him strangely.
"What? Tentacles are useful." His response brings a round of laughter to the room, each of them imagining a different reason why he learned a variety of uses for tentacles. Especially the witches, who don't know he is an Ancient, who has natural tentacles of his own.
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