Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

I couldn’t shake the worry that Lily was going to show up with a new mythical creature from my head, and with the afternoon to spare, I was heading to the library in the hopes that Sylverith would be there. She might be able to put my mind at ease.

Entering the library itself, I stopped in my tracks. It had only been a day or two since I was in here last, but the room was nearly full of books, with stacks of them on every table, even on the floor, from giant tomes to scrolls of parchment.

“Uh, Sylverith?” I called out.

“Yes, dear? I’m by the window,” a voice said in my mind.

That was easier said than done to reach, as I navigated all the piles of books, being careful not to knock them over. Crisplet was seemingly being even more careful than I was. All the books appeared to be incredibly old, many with titles I couldn’t even make out the words.

“Where did all the books come from?” I asked.

There was a chuckle just ahead of me, but no response.

“You didn’t take them all from the palace, did you?” I said.

“No, dear. I borrowed a few from there, but I also have some of my own here. It’s far more comfortable to read here at the moment,” she said.

Coming around the books, I saw three chairs all close together facing the window, with Sylverith looking at me with a smile, a large tome sitting in her lap. The pages were written in a language I had never seen before.

“What can I help you with, dear?” Sylverith asked, looking me over.

I all of a sudden felt really silly asking if Lily was about to bring a mythical creature here, but taking a deep breath and ignoring the smile that appeared on her face, probably able to glean my thoughts, I pushed on.

“Are there any really powerful ice creatures in the world?” I asked.

“Yes, dear, there are several, but to put your concerns at ease, Lily is not currently seeking one out that I know of, though she has not given up her search to help your lifespan,” Sylverith smiled.

“Is that even possible?” I asked curiously.

“Of course it is, dear. Your king is over two hundred years old, and that individual who gave you those books was once human as well,” she mused.

“Once human?”

“Yes. I don’t know for certain, but I doubt he is technically a human anymore,” Sylverith smiled.

I didn’t know how to respond to that. How does someone become no longer human, or more importantly, what are they then? Does it mean he’s dangerous?

“I can see you’re troubled by that, Trevor, but it’s not overly uncommon for someone or something to level up beyond their original class and grow into something more powerful. It’s far more common in the higher rarity classes, but even common can achieve it,” Sylverith explained.

“Does that mean I’m out of luck, then, since my class said no evolutions when I first got it?”

Sylverith seemed to take a moment to consider this, even closing her book, studying me closely. The emerald eyes felt like they were piercing into my soul. It wasn’t painful, just unsettling, yet I couldn’t look away.

“It is curious. I can see that, but generally, if your class has no evolutions, then the benefits come through the skills you’re assigned, so I wouldn’t be overly concerned,” she smiled.

“So what sort of ice creatures are there?” I asked, wanting to move on from the topic.

“There are many. I believe there is even still kin of mine far to the south, but notably three other creatures come to mind on this world. There is a creature who once was a yeti on the neighbouring continent. I never got a name. It didn’t like conversation. There is a Frolonx, which has almost fox-like features. However, its power over ice rivals that of the most powerful masters,” Sylverith explained.

She then looked pensive but didn’t continue, which left me wondering what the final one was.

“The third?” I asked. I had to know.

“It’s known by Ciro. If Alira is the queen of flame, then it would be the ruler of ice, though I warn you, Trevor, if you encounter this being, be cautious. It thrives on chaos and has little care for morality,” she explained.

“Where does it live?” I asked curiously.

There was a frown on Sylverith’s face, though it didn’t feel like it was aimed at me.

“Nowhere in particular,” she said, now looking out the window.

“I must apologise, young Trevor. We’ll have to continue our conversation momentarily. I need to check something.” Sylverith stood up and proceeded to leave me seated there.

I looked at Crisplet, rather confused. Looking around, I had a look at one of the books stacked up next to me. Again, the title looked almost like random scratching. I couldn’t make out the words at all, and turning to the page, it was no better.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

I suppose at least she wouldn’t need to worry about someone stealing the books.

So I pulled out the journal and started to read while I waited for Sylverith to return.

***

Several hours had passed while I was reading. I only left once to switch the jerky in the smoking room, and surprisingly the eyes handled it well, but I rushed back to the library right after finishing reading, as the story was a particularly interesting one where Morlin met with a non-human native species on a continent I didn’t recognise and hunted a tree spirit with them.

What was most curious was his description of the beings: waist height with vibrant green hair and an almost natural camouflage with the surrounding forest, hunting using bows and magic.

With there being no sign of Sylverith returning, I decided not to waste the rest of my afternoon, so I made my way to the butchery room where Milo had made me a table in the far corner to practise carving the runes into the melons.

Crisplet just seemed happy to leave the library but refused to leave my side when I offered it earlier.

Not knowing how long I had spent carving runes into the melons, I felt I was close. I only had four explode on me, although there were dozens that didn’t seem to react at all, or glowed briefly, but there was no change on the actual melon, which was disappointing.

I kept trying, with Crisplet at my side working on a statue, though at this stage I couldn’t be sure what he was working on, as it seemed to build, blur into fire, then fade away before he tried again.

So I guess we were both struggling with our projects.

Another hour passed and not a single exploded melon, but I had my first real, noticeable change. Carving the rune and activating it, it glowed blue as it had done dozens of times. For this one, I tried to conceptualise time as a journey, with the memory of the long journey being much shorter, compressing what took weeks into seconds.

As the blue faded, the melon showed wrinkles on the skin before turning brown and rotting in front of me from the inside out, and only stopping when the rune was destroyed.

“Wait… inside out!” I yelled, startling Crisplet.

I quickly picked up one of the melons that had not worked and were discarded to the side, since I didn’t have mana to store them all. Pulling out my regular knife, I cut the melon in half and was immediately assaulted by a rotten smell.

The entire inside of the melon had completely rotted away!

I took two more melons, cutting them in half as well, both equally rotten, before, just to be sure I had not been sold rotten melons to begin with, I took a fresh one. Cutting it in half, I was relieved to see it was perfect. Its pale green flesh was juicy, and I’m sure it would have smelled nice if not for being surrounded by rotten melons.

I jumped to my feet. “Crisplet, I got to find Milo!”

Getting a burst of sparks before I raced out of the butchery room and into the dining room. Not seeing him, I checked all the usual places: the living room, then ran to the library, calling out his name, but no luck.

When I returned to the foyer, I was met by Archie, who was bowing.

“Archie, do you know where Milo is?” I asked.

Archie nodded. “Yes, sir. I believe he is in a meeting right now in the study.”

“A meeting?” I asked, confused. I was unaware of any meetings.

“Yes, sir. We had a visit from the head of a minor noble house, and rather than turning him away at the door, Milo is meeting with him,” Archie explained.

“Thanks, Archie. Is there any chance you could pass on a message for Milo to visit me in the butcher room when he’s done?” I asked hopefully.

“Of course, sir.” He bowed.

I was feeling relieved as I made my way back to the butchery room. I had no desire to insert myself into politics at all, so I could only feel grateful that Milo was deflecting the political meetings, especially when they tried to force you on the spot by having the head of a house visit.

As soon as I entered the room, I was assaulted by the smell of rotten melons, burning my nostrils.

“We might need to burn these off if we can, Crisplet. It should be fine in here with the walls made of stone,” I said.

Crisplet let out a burst of sparks before turning a deep red and black flame, with the embers coming out of his head rotating like a crown. I expected a column of flame again, like what burnt the uniform. However, I knew something different was coming when the air seemed to ripple with heat.

The stone on the floor appeared to glow orange. With the heat emanating from the area being so strong, I had to pull out a candy with fire immunity.

The floor erupted in fire, covering half the butcher room in length and covering every single melon. There was no smoke, only heat, as a powerful flame went halfway up the wall with a small roar.

“Your flame wall skill?” I asked.

Getting a burst of sparks from Crisplet along with a strong feeling of happiness.

“It’s very impressive,” I admired, as it was still roaring.

The flame seemed to shut off as soon as it started, as the roar ended. I expected to see ash, but there was nothing, just a large scorch mark where the wall had been burnt compared to the rest, as well as a large section on the floor itself.

“That was impressive,” I heard Liane say from behind me, causing me to jump.

“You saw that?” I asked, half worried but mostly proud.

How could I not be? Crisplet started as just a sous chef. Now he had incredibly powerful abilities that could probably do a lot of damage to someone or something.

“Sure did. New ability from Crisplet?” Liane asked.

“First time trying it, I think. We needed to get rid of some rotten melons,” I laughed.

“I see. I was just checking on you because I heard a roar. I’ll let you get back to…” She was interrupted as Milo appeared behind her.

“What’s that awful smell, and why is it so hot?” he asked, entering the butchery room.

Seeing the scorch marks on the floor and wall, his eyes went wide.

“What did you do?” he asked, going over to inspect it.

“Progress I think?” I laughed,

I went on and explained what had happened. I wanted to show him, so pulling out a new melon, I placed it on the table I had been working on, only for the melon to rock and sizzle.

“You nearly melted the stone, Trev. That’s going to be hot for a very long time. Come into the kitchen and show me there. Open the door to the outside so you can let out some of this hot air, or you might ruin the bacon,” Milo instructed, heading back towards the kitchen.

I felt panic welling up inside. Had I ruined the bacon?