This is my Jam!

Trucy's sudden outburst soured the mood completely, coupled with the fact that Dustin was probably under a lot of stress. Isaac decided to stop training for the day and do something else instead. It would be better for everyone if they took a day off. He lifted the boy from the ground and carried him on his shoulder.

"Thanks for the help, Martha." He nodded towards the maid, who was still by their side.

"It's not a problem, young master." She nodded back. "I'll be leaving to complete my duties."

"Yeah, go ahead," Isaac said dismissively, walking towards the mansion.

He let the boy rest in one of the couches while he was thinking. The soil required a few days until the last batch of plants died off and fertilized it, so planting more was out of the question. Selling them as they were is profitable, but he knew that people usually buy processed food instead of fresh ones for convenience. Something he learned the hard way decades ago.

"Something portable, easy to make, and convenient..." He ate a Mekan chocolate from his bag of holding, and its sweetness gave him an idea. "What about candies?... Nah, too hard to make without factories." He suddenly missed the convenience of having factories in his old world. They brought it near destruction, but since coming here, he missed the modern times a bit.

The rural life was without many luxuries that city folk had, but they weren't primitive. They still had TV where he liked to watch soap operas with his wife every afternoon. He missed his old tractor that probably needed an oil change. His old radio where he usually listened to music from the last decade.

"Heh, i remember that young chap that came every Sunday, i wonder if he's ok..." The image of a tanned young man came to mind. He was his usual delivery driver and would often come with dog treats for Lily. "But i don't miss that weird music of his. That's too modern for me." He shook his head with a seemingly disgusted face, but he chuckled soon after. He remembered the first time he brought a tiny speaker and blasted the accursed music in his house. "It's my jam, Mr. Isaac. You're gonna love it. Bah, youngsters don't appreciate a good salsa... What does jam even mean? Are you going to eat your disks or what?"

He frowned for a couple of seconds before starting to laugh out loud, scaring Dustin. The boy suddenly woke up confusedly and looked everywhere while Isaac held his sides. After a couple of seconds, he wiped his tears and patted Dustin's shoulders.

"That's it, Dustin! Jam!" He said with a smile.

"Jam?" Dustin repeated, not making heads or tails of Isaac's sudden outburst.

"Jam!" Isaac patted him a few times and stood up. "Thanks, Leonardo, I'll remember this!" With that, he began to walk to the kitchen

"...Who's Leonardo?" Dustin muttered as he stood up, dusted his robes, and followed behind. "Wait for me!"

---

"Well...I've never done something like that, young master. I doubt anyone in pritwood has." Marco frowned when he heard Isaac's plan. After thinking for a moment, he crossed his arms and tilted his head. "Won't it be too sweet with that amount of sugar?"

"That's why we're adding lemon, and it's supposed to be sweet in the first place." Isaac shrugged. "Let's try it and see if it works, Marco."

"I understand, young master." Marco bowed. "I'll prepare the Brown watermelon."

"Before you go, Dustin came up with names for the crops," Isaac said with a smile and patted the boy's shoulder. "Go ahead. You wanted to do this."

"R-right." The boy stammered for a moment. He deeply breathed and cleared his throat. "The watermelon, tomatoes, and eggplants will be Geodes! So Geode watermelon, Geode tomato, and Geode eggplant! The corn is Whistling corn! The hot tomato is Hellfire tomato! The peppers are River peppers! The metal eggplant is Egg iron!"

"Uhmmm...Are you sure about this, young master?" Marco asked in an unsure tone. The names...were a bit underwhelming, in his opinion.

"Yeah, Those will be the names." He said with a smile. He couldn't say no to that face full of anticipation next to him, and it wasn't like he had any other names planned. "Let's start with the experiments!"

One of the cooks came over with a Geode watermelon and sliced it in half. The boys and Marco spent the next minutes scooping the interior and saving the seeds in a small bowl next to them. Dustin sneakily nibbled some pieces, but his actions weren't very subtle, so everyone knew but chose to remain silent. After that, Marco saved the watermelon rind at Isaac's orders. He didn't question, only obeyed.

Then, the boys entered with him to the kitchen area. A big room full of bright lights, pitch-black kitchenware, and several grills. People were preparing the next meal, so nobody paid them a lot of attention apart from bowing before continuing their work.

"Welcome to my area, young master," Marco said with a smile. "Excuse the boys, please. They are in the zone right now and need to prepare the dishes for everyone."

"Don't worry, let's finish quickly, so they don't have to worry about us." Isaac nodded, understanding his intentions.

Marco took a big wok from one of the racks and placed it on an unoccupied grill. He snapped his fingers, and a fire started under it. "Woah..." Both of them were surprised at that, but Dustin was more vocal about it. Isaac made a mental note to learn how to do that when he advanced to energy gathering in the future.

Marco dumped lemon juice extracted by one of the cooks, the watermelon pulp, and almost a pound of sugar. As time slowly passed, the watermelon's sweet scent began drifting in the kitchen, raising several brows among the other cooks inside. Some of them came to look at the concoction with curiosity, while some of them made some remarks about how unbearably sweet it must be. Isaac didn't mind this. It was usual for people not to understand things without testing them.

"Culinary arts of the fire dragon: Blessing of the gluttonous lords." A wave of spiritual fire covered the jam, sealing the spiritual energy that began to drift off due to the cooking process. Isaac then pumped up into his priorities to learn these cooking arts, they seemed to align with his purposes like a ring to the finger. Finally, 45 minutes later, Marco turned off the fire.

"Ohh..." Dustin was amazed by the paste that remained in the wok.

It was a translucent paste with a brownish tint, a soft golden glow, and smelling like watermelons. When He tried to dip his finger, Isaac slapped his hand before he could.

"No touching. That thing is boiling." He shook his head. "Wait until it cools down naturally."

"Ok..." The boy sulked while rubbing his hand.

"Don't worry. I'll give you some later." Isaac couldn't bear to smile and ruffle his hair.

"He can't handle it, but i can, young master." Marco chimed in. "It requires more than boiling watermelons to burn my insides. I'm a foundation establishment cook, after all!" He proudly flexed his muscles with a big smile. Spiritual fire condensed around his arms like a snake before dispersing into the air. "Let me see..."

He took a spoon and scooped a bit of the jam before tasting it with his eyes closed. A sudden surge of earth energy went through his body as if he ate a pill. After a couple of laps, it settled into his dantian and harmoniously combined with his own. All while leaving a watermelon aftertaste in his mouth.

"Hmmm...this is good stuff." He nodded while eating a second spoon. "It's more concentrated than the dishes, and it's sweeter, a lot sweeter." He closed his eyes for a second to feel the flow of spiritual energy coursing through his body. "Too much of it may be harmful, like anything else in excess, but it's great. It has my approval.

"Great!" Isaac screamed in victory. He finally began to make progress towards his dream with this small step of today.

"But." Marco interrupted. "Blessing of the gluttonous lords is not permanent. If we want to make a product out of this...we need something else."

"Like a jar to store it?" Isaac answered with a raised brow.

"A common jar won't work. The spiritual energy would seep right through the glass." Marco shook his head once more. "I recommend you to talk with the lord about this, young master. He may have some ideas about it."

Marco casted the blessing of the gluttonous lords again to prevent energy spillage, and left to help the other chefs. Isaac stood for a moment, thinking about a possible solution, but nothing came to mind. With a small sigh, he admitted defeat. Isaac grabbed Dustin by the hand before walking out of the kitchen.

"Where are we going?" Dustin asked in confusion and sorrow. He didn't have the chance to taste the jam yet...

"To visit pa, we need to solve this issue before going forward, little Dustin."