Cook wasn't joking about the breakfast the next day being special. With the advancement of her magic, and her intensive knowledge of all things cooking, her culinary skills had taken a step beyond the mundane fare that you would normally expect of a line cook.
She now had the precision control to make some changes to the basic structure of the plants in the garden, an accelerated magical version of the hybrid breeding programs that created the various strains of fruits and grains in the past.
"I thought it would be nice to have some more options, and since we had mustard seeds in the spice packs, I took some liberties.
Broccoli, cauliflower and a variety of cabbage all come from the same base stock, so with a bit of magical interference, I manage to recreate them, but with a much more magical genome, for increased energy density.
I wouldn't quite call them mystic plants yet, but they definitely have more energy content than the originals did while maintaining the same flavour."
Her proud announcement brought groans and laughter from the witches who had gathered for breakfast.
"Your great experiment for the evening was creating a larger variety of vegetables. You know how we feel about vegetables." One of the witches pointed out.
"I only made the good ones, but that isn't the real experiment. I did that for dinner. For breakfast, I thought we could use some omelettes. I managed to find a number of seeds, including an avocado pit, among the items that have come in.
So let me introduce to you Chef's special all-vegetable omelettes, with tomato, peppers, mushrooms, cashew cheese, and a side of avocado slices on my specialty ciabatta bread."
Wolfe wasn't the only one that gave them a skeptical look at first, but Cook wouldn't do them wrong like that, so he cut off a bite of the omelette and let the flavour fill his mouth.
It wasn't bad. It wasn't quite eggs, but it was mildly spiced and mixed with the magic-infused vegetables. It was really good. The cheese was a nice touch, though. The witches would love having that for sandwiches, and apparently, it was made with nuts that were being grown in the garden.
The side of bacon was genuine monster meat, though. Cook would experiment with a lot of things, but bacon was somewhat sacred.
Katerina came in with her Familiar, who began to dart about the kitchen, leaving a trail of shimmering magical dust. She only did that when excited or happy, and Wolfe recalled that Faeries didn't eat any form of animal product, so the change in the breakfast menu was likely more exciting to her than to anyone else in the room.
"Look, fresh avocados. I love avocado." The Faerie exclaimed as she flew back with a slice nearly the size of her body.
The young witch had already prepared her a bowl of fruits, berries and coconut ice cream, to which the slice was added and generously coated in Faerie dust.
"Does it work like a spice or something?" Ella asked as she examined the now shimmering bowl.
"Oh, no, it's just condensed mana. We leak it when we're excited, and it adds nutrition. Do you want some? I'm so happy I could do the whole table today." The little flying Fae giggled.
"Maybe tomorrow. Today I will try Cook's food as she prepared it." Ella laughed as the Faerie braced her wings and feet on the edges of the bowl so that she could lower herself straight down to the food.
Normally she just stood beside the bowl, but the amount that a Faerie could eat left no doubt that they were magical creatures, as their daily meal was larger than their own body.
"What do we have on the schedule for the day?" Wolfe asked as the plates began to empty and the witches got ready for the day.
"I am going to put up a Fae barrier around the house today. Do you want to help?" The little faerie asked.
"That sounds good. Have we sent people out to investigate all reports of enemy movements already?" Wolfe replied.
"Yep. Two teams of five witches, all fully armed, went out to investigate the only two reports of possible mundane army movement that we received this morning. There are also four groups of two out touring the villages to deal with that illness that has been spreading and one hunting group out looking for meat." Priya informed him.
"Then it looks like I've got all the time in the world to work on the Den. What part do you need help with first?" Wolfe asked the fae.
"Faerie magic is a lot like your Unholy Magic. It uses the laws of another world to do things that others don't expect, so all I really need is a load of mana. I can use quite a bit, but I'm still fairly young, and being summoned limited my powers, so I need your help with that."
Wolfe nodded. "That's something that I'm good at. What did you plan to do to keep the base safe?"
"Have you heard of the fae mist? If an unauthorized visitor enters the region, the scenery changes, and they are led out. They usually never realize what happened, but with the advanced tools of the army, they will likely realize eventually that they keep ending up off-course, despite the fact that they didn't leave the tracks they were following.
So, other than the mist, I think that we should also add a [Living Forest] spell. It takes a stupidly large amount of power to uphold when it's actively repelling an attack, but with so many Second-Rank witches, plus your powers, I think that we can make it work.
The trees here don't really count as a proper forest, but I think that it will be enough to work with. They become as powerful as magical golems, and they will crush with branches, poison and entangle with vines, that sort of thing." She explained.
"I think we can fix the forest situation as well. We're not so far into the mountains that trees won't grow. We're just in a clear area around the ridgeline. We could have the witches grow you a nice temperate forest in the area to work as the defence force." Wolfe offered.
"Great plan. Let's gather them and do that now."