Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Nearly a month had passed since the royal dinner took place, and it had not slowed down despite the hopes for time to relax. For the last three weeks, Crisplet had been building a statue at the palace with Clifford, and truthfully, I felt lost without my friend by my side.

Lily had been largely absent as well, only returning during the evenings, and I was under strict instructions from Sylverith not to leave her wards while Crisplet and Lily were busy elsewhere, although she wouldn’t tell me what Lily was up to.

I busied myself preparing plenty of jerky and candies for Micca, and surprisingly the biggest seller outside of the tea, which sold the moment it came back into stock, was the Ril berry candy. For whatever reason, luck-based candy was incredibly sought after, and I even heard from Luis that it had become—the gift to buy among nobles, turning into something of a status symbol to have some.

While the tea had a line of high-end adventurers outside the store daily, waiting for restock, amazingly there was also a demand for what people called the smoky tea, which was just tea I had burnt. This was being delivered daily to me, and I was processing it constantly, but I suspected the supplies would run out shortly after we left the city.

The cafe had been so busy that Hari had taken to helping there most days while he trained new guards, with Darren and George both advancing in their skills considerably, and most surprising was that Raymond had worked there every single day without fail and been integral to the security of the store.

Milo, still working on his draconic runes, having still not succeeded at speeding up time, instead found success with starting to slow time, which had been a task I’d found close to impossible so far.

I did, however, succeed in placing the rune on the wooden barrel holding the rum, allowing me to age it. Milo, being the one to help me purify it and make it drinkable, told me it was not great, but it would be passable in a pinch. Importantly, however, I managed to infuse it and get some minor buffs on it, with it giving a +2 Charisma, -1 Dexterity, and fire immunity. It was the first time I had seen a negative stat.

I also had some ingredients start to come in from Princess Kathrine, providing several ember cores, along with several fire-related plants that apparently grew near lava lakes. I had not yet had the time to do much experimenting, but I wanted to get it done before we left the city in a week.

Most importantly, though, the experience had been near constant, almost reaching level thirty, while also hitting the evolution quests of five skills, with Second Simmer, Manaflair Crust, Precise Palate, and Resonate Balance all hitting level five, with the quest for Culinary Transformation nearly complete.

Today, however, today was a special day. I was currently sitting on top of a dozen wooden crates that were all filled with drake scales. Finally, we were going to conclude our deal with Reginald over these scales, as he had just arrived to pick them up.

I thought it was going to be a small affair. I was so incredibly wrong, as a small army of guards, at least three dozen or so, and two of the most secure-looking carriages I had ever seen showed up.

“Hello, Lord Ashmoon!” Reginald Fellwood called happily, stepping out of one of the carriages.

“Good morning, Reginald. I was not expecting so many people,” I said.

Reginald let out a laugh. “What did you expect, then? This is one of the largest deals to have taken place in a very long time.”

Shrugging, “I don’t know. Honestly, I thought you’d put it in a storage ring or two and that would be it.”

Reginald smiled. “Absolutely not. A deal this large, I want word to spread. Appearance is everything, and I already have crafters lining up to work on the goods and produce equipment, although we’ll be sitting on most of the supply for a while so as not to flood the market.”

I frowned at that. “Wouldn’t it be better if the armour were more accessible? Surely it would help more people that way.”

Reginald’s smile faltered only slightly. “Yes, it is partially done as a selfish matter, but also for safety. When people start to rely on incredibly strong gear to survive, they take risks they wouldn’t normally take, or they’d have an inflated sense of ability. Happens all the time to children of noble houses who are gifted too many magical items.”

Thinking of my own scarf and chest plate, I didn’t feel it made me more inclined to run into battle, but I was hardly the normal adventurer these days.

“Well, as agreed, we have just shy of twelve hundred scales, along with sixty-four teeth and twelve claws,” I said, gesturing to the boxes.

Reginald’s face broke into a giant grin. “Excellent. Two platinum and fifty-two gold, as agreed.”

He pulled out two silver rectangles that didn’t look very fancy at all, especially next to the literal bag of gold coins, but as he handed it to me, I was shocked by their weight. Each one easily weighed more than the entire bag of gold, and holding it, there was something about it. It didn’t feel like regular metal. It had a warmth to it.

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Turning around, I attempted to hand it straight to Liane, who had shown up behind me with Milo, not wanting to be responsible for protecting it.

“I’m not taking that,” she laughed.

“Trevor, you’re the most protected individual in this kingdom. You’re going to need to hold that,” Milo laughed.

Reginald, who was beaming, clearly looking over his status, started to nod.

“He’s right. They couldn’t even assassinate you when they tried. You have a reputation now, but importantly, I gained two levels and a new skill choice from that transaction!” Reginald exclaimed.

“It seems really easy to gain levels as a merchant,” I said.

I realised I had probably said something silly when I saw both Liane and Milo shaking their heads as soon as I said it.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you,” I quickly added, but Reginald waved me off.

“No offence taken. I actually assumed you’d know how most merchant classes work with your friend, but I’ll explain. Most merchants get bonus experience for sales above what they’d normally sell items for, with the larger the difference, the larger the bonus,” he explained.

Nodding along, it made sense.

Reginald continued. “My normal trade deal is dealing in dozens of gold coins, so to go from that to platinum gained me a couple of years’ worth of experience in a single transaction, and that would be split with the couple of other house members who are involved in this deal, who would have likely also just received an experience boost.”

Looking at Milo, I asked, “Did you get anything for our side of the deal?”

Milo shook his head. “Only merchants get that. Micca would have got a little from this for helping with the negotiations.”

“Now, if you don’t mind, time for the performance,” Reginald grinned.

I was momentarily confused by that, and especially when he started to store all the crates that he had just told me he wanted to show he was carrying. I was then further confused when a dozen identical crates appeared out of his storage.

In a whisper, Reginald said, “I’m not going to actually carry the goods in the open. It’s all a performance, though. Appearance is everything in the political game, young Trevor. It’s a pity you plan on leaving the city so soon.”

Heading to the door, he called the guards to carry the decoy boxes to the carriage.

“Normally this would be the most dangerous part, yet your residence has more security than the palace itself,” Reginald joked, watching as the guards carried the boxes, seemingly struggling to carry them.

Soon they had finished, Reginald turning to me, bowing deeply. “Lord Ashmoon, thank you for trading with me. If you come across any rare goods like this that you wish to sell, House Fellwood is at your service. For now, though, I have a show to put on.”

With a grin, he turned and shouted orders to the guards.

Once they had walked out of sight, I turned to Milo and Liane, who had been silently watching. “Are they going to be attacked? They are taking it so seriously.”

“Almost certainly, the moment they leave your residence,” Milo chuckled.

“In the capital?” I asked in disbelief. I figured you’d be safe from that here.

“Especially because it’s the capital. Easy to stage people and slip by guards in a city this large,” Liane added.

“Is he going to be safe?” I asked, worried.

Milo laughed. “Absolutely. He’d have been preparing for this moment for weeks.”

It didn’t really make sense to me. “Seems so much easier to just make it a quiet trade.”

“I’ll never understand it myself,” Liane muttered.

Milo burst into laughter, tapping her arm. “Yet you’re the noble here!”

I had only made it two steps before Archie appeared, a small scroll in his hand.

“Sir, a letter for you from Prince Luis.”

Taking it, I started to unfurl it. “Thanks, Archie.”

Dear Trevor,

I was hoping I could have a private conversation with you at your earliest convenience.

Luis.

The letter was strange for a variety of reasons. The main one being Luis had never sent me a letter. He usually just showed up uninvited, so why he would feel the need to request an audience with me now was strange. So pulling out a charcoal stick, I scrawled on the same note: “Sure, come to the house whenever.”

Handing it back to Archie, “Could you have that sent to him right away?”

Archie bowed. “Of course, sir.”

Both Liane and Milo had been staring at me throughout the interaction, clearly curious.

“Uh, Luis asked to talk to me?” I said, expressing my confusion.

I was thankful Liane agreed with me. “That’s it?”

Milo, however, seemed more serious. “It’s probably going to be to ask you something official, and that’s why he’s done it this way.”

The conversation was interrupted by a loud boom that shook the very ground. Not even a split second later, the familiar pressure of Lily appeared next to me, looking towards the front door.

“Seems they got attacked pretty quickly,” Milo commented, looking unbothered.

“That sounded like an enormous explosion. Are you sure they’ll be okay?” I looked at him, concerned.

Not just for Reginald, either, but we had our own personal guards at the gates. What if they got caught in the crossfire?

Lily seemed to relax, still looking towards the entrance.

“I doubt Luis will be here soon, so let’s go and discuss these skills,” Milo said.

“I’m going to go watch the fight,” Liane said with a grin as she vanished, along with Lily.