Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Sprinting over to the door, I opened it as wide as I could. When the door was opened, a steady rush of air came past, heading outside as Milo stood by the doorway to the kitchen.

I suspect he was using some wind magic to push the hot air out.

“Thanks,” I muttered as I entered the kitchen.

Milo just chuckled. “I’m sure it’ll take more heat than that to really affect it, but just be careful.”

Not wasting any time in demonstrating the rune, I pulled out several fresh melons and began to carve.

Though perhaps I should have practised on a couple more. In my excitement, I must have messed up the rune, because the instant I pushed mana into it, the melon exploded, absolutely covering all of us.

Liane just let out a laugh immediately, while Milo was shaking his head, while wiping melon off his face.

I didn’t know what to say. I was just embarrassed.

Taking the next melon, I focused on this one, ensuring everything was perfect, imagining the concept of time as a memory of a long journey, just as I did before, specifically remembering the journey since I left Dunhearth the first time until now.

Then, as I pushed my mana into it, it glowed blue, and I couldn’t help but notice Liane stepping behind Milo, with a finger to her lips.

The rune glowed blue as the skin began to shrivel before collapsing in on itself and decaying into a pile of foul-smelling rotten mush.

“Very impressive. How did you conceptualise it?” Milo commented, nodding.

“Uh, as a memory of a journey?” I said, hoping it wouldn’t be stupid.

“But that’s no…” Milo was interrupted by a kick to the side of his leg.

“It doesn’t matter how he’s done it. That certainly looks successful to me!” Liane said happily.

Milo inspected the pile of melon, seemingly unbothered by the smell that felt like it was burning my nostrils with every breath.

“Well done, Trev. You’ve certainly managed to get it aged, but the real question is now how are you going to be able to change the length of time?” Milo asked.

I had not really thought about this. In fact, I wasn’t even sure how much time had passed with this rune. If I were imagining the entire journey so far, was it five months?

Crisplet burnt away the remains of the melon, in a not so dramatic fashion this time, as I took a new one from the floor and carved. This time, rather than the journey since leaving home, I tried to imagine the time spent at the orphanage as my time as I carved the rune.

Everything worked as it should. The rune carving was smooth. The rune glowed as I used my mana. Then something strange happened. Like before, the skin wrinkled, but it all happened so fast as the melon collapsed onto the counter. There was no mush. It turned rapidly into a dried disc that had shrunk in size. There was no smell.

“Uh, I don’t know if that was a success or a failure,” I commented.

I picked up the disc. It was completely dry and snapped in my hands like a dried leaf.

“How long was the journey you pictured, then?” Milo asked, taking a piece of the melon from my hand.

“I pictured my time at the orphanage.”

“So a decade, then, roughly. That makes sense. What you’ve done clearly is working. I suspect the problem is going to appear when you’re trying to get specific times,” Milo explained.

“How do we fix it, then?” I asked curiously.

Milo just let out a laugh. “Trev, I’ve not got my own to work yet, so I really don’t know for this, and I think it’s best we talk to Sylverith about it.”

Knowing that Sylverith was likely still not back yet, I changed the topic.

“I saw you having a meeting. Is everything okay?”

Milo let out a chuckle. “Yes, there are a lot of people who want to speak with you, and even more who just want to work with you. Usually, we send them a message in response, and that’s it, but when the heads of the houses show up, it requires us to actually meet with them properly.”

“And today’s?” I asked.

Milo waved it off. “Just a minor house that wants to move up with all the chaos happening right now, nothing to worry about, but what I needed to discuss with you is the drake scales and the drake head.”

“We should go sit in the living room if you’re going to talk business,” Liane suggested.

Milo, nodding, headed that way, while I told Crisplet what was happening.

As we entered the living room, Milo explained. “So, the scales. House Fellwood will buy every scale that we’re willing to sell. They will also provide the knacker if we’d like, and they will remove the scales from the remaining drake without needing to give them a portion of the materials.”

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“That’s good, right?”

Milo nodded. “Yes, but I wanted to check with you. If you want to dismantle it first, perhaps if you get experience out of it, the option’s there.”

I shook my head. I didn’t get any experience for cutting the drake, although I was sure that now I could with the new knife.

“We should have them do it here in our butchery room. I don’t trust they wouldn’t try to steal anything if they are in their own shops,” Liane said.

Milo seemed to agree with it, just nodding his head again.

“We can have our guards watching over to make sure nothing goes missing. Lord Fellwood won’t mind. He very much wants this deal to go through,” Milo agreed.

My thoughts went to how many scales we’d need to keep ourselves to better equip the team. Surely having someone like Hari or Jen with drake-scale armour would be beneficial.

I asked. “We should keep some for ourselves, though, right?”

Liane nodded, but Milo seemed to think about it. “Yes, we can, but it’s important to mention that they are very valuable.”

I just shrugged. “What do we need money for right now?”

“You’ve not had to buy potions yet,” Liane chuckled.

“No, you have a good point. We’ve not really discussed too much finance-wise. We have plenty of gold for day to day, or even for your food spending. Ultimately, though, we still don’t have the money for magical equipment,” Milo explained.

“Is it really necessary?”

I knew of some magical equipment, and I even remembered some of the prices from the gear they showed me back at the Adventurer’s Guild, but I never really looked at what magical combat equipment there was. But thinking on it now, maybe it was far superior to drake scale armour?

“Necessary? No, not really, not with the jobs Hari chooses, but part of the reason he chooses low-danger jobs is that we lack the gear for more dangerous fighting. Right now, by far you’re the most well-equipped member on the team, but getting drake scale armour or drake leather for Liane would help,” Milo said.

“Oh! Or dragon leather!” Liane said happily.

“What about yourself, then?” I asked Milo, ignoring Liane’s attempt to secure the dragon leather.

He just let out a chuckle. “Enchanted mage robes might be some of the most expensive magical items there are, outside of life-saving single-use items and jewellery.”

The conversation was interrupted as Sylverith entered the room, and for whatever reason she appeared to look concerned, which was hard to describe. Normally she had an almost impassive, distant air about her. Now there was the slightest hint of concern in her appearance.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yes, I think so. We were discussing Ciro, and although Lily was not the reason, I believe it was the source of the storm and was attracted by the concentration of power in this location,” Sylverith explained as she took a seat.

“You made it go away?” I asked.

There was a long pause from Sylverith, then a frown. “No. No, there were two entities in that storm when I got close enough, then they both vanished instantly and the storm cleared.”

I wanted to ask the most obvious question of who, but the appearance of Sylverith looking concerned left me feeling unsettled.

“Ciro… the Ciro was coming here?” Milo stuttered.

“Who or what is Ciro?” Liane whispered to Milo.

Sylverith just nodded.

I became even more nervous when I saw the colour drain from Milo’s face.

“Wait, so if not you, who could make Ciro just leave?” I asked, looking between Sylverith and Milo, who clearly knew who it was.

“That’s just the thing. It didn’t leave; it vanished. I wasn’t even sure I could divert it myself. For someone else to be that powerful, and nearby without my knowing, is troubling,” Sylverith said.

Sylverith looked me in the eye. “I should warn you properly, dear. If you have Ciro’s attention, you will run into it. It is not an evil creature. However, it doesn’t know good either. Be very cautious and let Lily do the talking.”

There was silence between the group, as Milo appeared to share the concern of Sylverith, but I did really want to tell Sylverith about my success with the rune.

There was what felt like a change in the air as Sylverith looked at me, and a small smile appeared on her face.

“You’ve had a breakthrough with the runes already?” she said.

I simply nodded. Sylverith turned to Milo. “And you?”

Milo looked embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head. “Not yet, no.”

“No matter. I suspected this one would be far harder for you, but you’ll get there. I want to see this, if you don’t mind, dear.” She turned back to me.

Not wanting to disappoint, I pulled out a melon in the living room and started to carve the rune. It did cross my mind that I shouldn’t do this in the living room in case it exploded, but it was too late now.

I went again with the journey through the orphanage as my sense of time, that way I wasn’t left with a pile of rotting mush, and I carved the rune, taking my time to ensure it was correct.

Nervously, I reached out, adding my mana, and half expecting the melon to explode, but it didn’t. Instead, it glowed blue and went through exactly the same motions as before, leaving a dried disc of melon on the table.

“Very good. How much time did you give it?” Sylverith asked.

This was the question that worried me. “I don’t know, ten years, I think?”

“Oh, how are you portraying time, then?” Sylverith studied me closely.

“As a memory of a journey.”

Sylverith smiled again, leaning back in her chair. “Excellent. You’ll never be able to go past your life experience in terms of time, but I can’t see that posing too much of an issue for you. What could be challenging is working out precise timing.”

“Make sure you get plenty of practice, and try to vary the time before you do it on the bacon. Also, be prepared for the mana draw on the much larger item. Don’t be too low,” Sylverith explained.

I nodded, making sure I did what I was told with this. I did not want to ruin the bacon.

“Oh, don’t forget the rum, too!” Milo said happily.

There was a knock on the door as Archie appeared.

“Sorry to bother you, but sir, there is a Clifford here who said you were expecting him?”

I didn’t even get to respond to Archie before Crisplet let off a giant burst of sparks and dashed out the door past Archie.

I chuckled, but getting up from the chair, “Thank you, Archie. It’s Crisplet’s statue-maker friend from the market. We’ll go see him now.”

“I’ll come with you. I have always enjoyed statues,” Sylverith commented, getting up as well.

In the end, everyone came with me. Entering the foyer, I saw Clifford standing in front of the Sylverith statue, with Crisplet moving around it, shooting off sparks.

“Welcome, Clifford. Thank you for coming,” I said as I got closer.

“That… that tree out front. It’s incredible,” was all Clifford got out.