Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

I had no real time to process what had happened. I stood there looking at the cracked shells, turning my head to see everyone in the room looking at us.

Turning around, the entire room stood in silence, watching us, when a familiar pressure arrived. Then, before I knew it, darkness, an icy chill running up my spine. I had felt this before. It only lasted a moment before I was dropped on a familiar floor, the orange glow of Crisplet bathing it with light.

Looking up, noticing I was now sitting in the kitchen at the house, I saw Lily standing over me, with Liane standing off to the side.

“The others, please, Lily. Don’t leave them there,” I said, gathering myself.

“It’s fine, Trev. Jen would refuse anyway. They’ll be fine. They know Lily took you,” Liane said.

I wasn’t so sure. “Please, at least make sure they are safe, then.”

Liane laughed. “Trev, you just had the goddess accept your gifts in such a manner that I’m sure the whole city knows. Who’s going to risk the wrath of the gods?”

I sat in silence, trying to process everything while Lily was pacing nervously back and forth. That in itself had me worried.

“She spoke to me this time,” I mumbled, and Crisplet let off a burst of sparks.

Liane let out a snort of laughter. “You’re not going to devote your life to the temple now, are you?”

I shook my head. “No?”

“Good. More often, when you hear a god spoke to someone, they then turn around and devote the rest of their life to a temple,” Liane smiled, taking a seat on the ground next to me.

“She just said thank you and the gift was most welcome, but that breeze, it didn’t feel natural,” I said.

Liane looked troubled. “I’m sure Milo would have felt more, but it wasn’t natural. That was pure mana, and a lot of it.”

I panicked at that. Large amounts of mana could overload channels and cause the same pain I went through, or cripple someone. And this was a populated city. Would thousands of people get mana sickness?

“You look troubled, and I want to put your mind at ease. It’s not the same mana that would be in your food or released from a master mage. This was softer, and didn’t feel like it caused any harm, but there was so, so much,” Liane said.

It appeared Lily was speaking with Crisplet, as Crisplet interpreted the conversation into a scene of fire, where it appeared like Lily was lying down in the forest with Sylverith in dragon form. Then an enormous wave of fire washed them away.

“You felt it even in the forest?” I confirmed.

A burst of sparks.

Liane didn’t say anything but just let out a nervous chuckle.

The first person to arrive was not someone I expected, as a familiar old man walked through the door from the butchery room, catching everyone off guard and causing Lily to immediately go on the defensive.

“Morlin?” I asked.

“Calm yourself, Lily. I am no threat,” Morlin said, waving her away.

Lily did not back down at all, standing between us with the chill in the air growing heavy.

“I felt the mana, and I’ve only come to find out what occurred. After visiting the temple, there was a panic about the goddess visiting, only to find someone had vanished,” Morlin began, not leaving the door that he had walked in from.

“Are the others okay?” I asked from behind Lily.

“Yes, yes, no one is hurt. Well, so far. Though that mana has attracted the attention of several fearsome entities, one I presume to be Sylverith heading back here,” Morlin said with a look of concern.

Crisplet appeared to be confused between Morlin being a friend or someone to defend against.

“It’s fine, Crisplet,” I muttered.

“I must ask, Trevor. What occurred?” Morlin asked.

“Uh, we just made an offering, and it was accepted. Then the breeze blew past us, blowing all the other offerings off the plinth,” I said simply.

“And that’s all? The goddess didn’t appear before you?” Morlin confirmed.

“Uh, some words were spoken, but that’s all. No one appeared before us, no,” I said.

“I see. Well, the release of mana I experienced would be something I’d expect if the goddess appeared,” Morlin said, with a look of confusion on his face.

I didn’t know how to respond to that, and I really just wanted the others to arrive quickly, but I knew from our journey there it would be a long trip through the city, especially if crowds were heading towards the temple.

“The mana felt different. Soft, even. Will it cause issues?” Liane asked.

“Hard to say. Any time there is a concentration of mana, it causes more beasts to appear and the dungeons to grow stronger, so there is some concern. Lily, it’s important you pass the message on to Sylverith when she arrives. You have a being of fire coming from the north, and a being from the sea coming from the south, while the demons have also reacted to this event. I need to leave you now, as I must warn the King. Farewell.” Morlin said, walking back into the butchery room and shutting the door.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it’s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

There was a moment of silence. “How’s he getting in and out that way?” I asked, confused.

“Likely has some form of teleportation, if I’m to guess,” Liane shrugged.

“Don’t like him,” a soft growl came.

“Lily?” I was shocked. This was now the second time she spoke, and the words were not incredibly clear, but unmistakable.

Lily just let out a sigh and flopped onto the floor.

“It’s fine, Lily. He’s not caused us any harm so far,” I tried to reassure her.

“So, uh, that message sounded very ominous, though. Being of fire from the north might be Alira, right? But the sea creature to the south, I only know of the one, and it’s the entire reason boats can’t travel through there directly,” Liane said.

“Dangerous, then?” I asked.

“Extremely so, but we have warning, and this is the capital. If anywhere has a chance to drive them back, it’s here,” Liane said.

I sat on the ground wondering what we could do about it, and the demons reacting, too, before shaking my head. There was nothing I could do about it myself, and I didn’t have time to waste sitting on the ground.

I had a dinner to get ready for, sausages to smoke, and side dishes to prepare.

“I’m not going to sit around and worry. I need to get ready for dinner tonight. I’m going to smoke the sausages,” I announced, and getting a burst of sparks from Crisplet, I made my way to the butchery room to reach the smoker.

“You get told a deadly beast is coming to the capital and your first thing to do is dinner?” Liane laughed.

“It’s not like I can stop it. Focus on the things in my control,” I said.

“The old Trevor would have panicked,” Liane laughed.

“What do you mean, the old Trevor?” I asked, slightly offended, turning around to look at Liane. I hadn’t changed that much, had I?

“Nothing!” she said with a smirk.

“You’re a noble now. Who’s really changed! I remember a Liane who told me she wanted to burn the whole system down and kill all of them,” I said with a laugh.

“That’s become most of them now, and they are doing a good job of burning themselves without my assistance,” Liane said bitterly.

Crisplet let off a burst of sparks, clearly agreeing.

The conversation was light while I got to work. I started by getting the sausages in the smoker, along with some lemon tea grass in the corners to slowly dry out. I also pulled out several racks of Skywolf ribs, which I had pre-seasoned with fire salt, pepper, and a mix of ground herbs and spices.

I left these to slowly smoke as well. I didn’t know exactly if it would work, but worst-case scenario, I’d just give them to Hari.

It was nearly an hour before anyone else showed up, with Jen arriving, looking to be out of breath.

“Oh, good, you’re here — wait, are you cooking? Now?” she said between breaths.

“Yeah?” I said, confused.

I was standing in the kitchen with two large pots near the fire, as I was reducing down some stock to make a sauce for the meat tonight. I had also peeled a large amount of tubers and was currently boiling them in the second pot, which I’d be turning into a large amount of tuber mash.

“The others will be a while. There was a huge swarm of people rushing to the temple to glimpse the god. Made it impossible to get out after you vanished,” Jen said, collapsing onto the ground.

“Glimpse of the god? There was no god there. She just took the offering,” I said.

“Yeah, I know, but that’s not the rumour going around after that burst of mana,” Jen explained.

“We had a visitor shortly after arriving,” Liane said.

“Yes, we assumed Morlin visited. He appeared next to where you were standing just as Lily took you away, then after locking eyes, he vanished as well,” Jen said.

Liane nodded, saying, “He had a warning, one that he wants passed on to Sylverith, and he went to pass it on to the King, but the burst has gained the attention of a fire beast to the north, a sea creature to the south, and a dragon to the west, which he assumes was Sylverith.”

“And apparently the demons reacted to it, though he didn’t say how,” I added quickly.

“Hopefully they don’t wipe out all our soldiers,” Jen muttered.

Archie appeared in the doorway, softly knocking as he peered in.

“Sorry to interrupt, sir. I didn’t realise you were home, but we have a visitor who would like to speak with you,” Archie said.

I couldn’t imagine who it would be. Visitors had practically stopped after Sylverith put her wards up, but Archie quickly solved that mystery.

“It’s Princess Kathrine.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. Let her in. That’s fine. She’ll likely just want to know what happened,” I smiled.

“I want to know what happened exactly, too,” Jen muttered.

Kathrine walked in, surprising me, because she was dressed not in her usual red dresses that I’d normally see but instead in full battle attire. She was in red leather armour covering the vitals over the top of a red and white robe. On her side was a thin sword, while the back of her gloves had vibrant red gems.

“Hello. Is everything okay?” I asked.

“You’re cooking?” She said, a smile breaking the serious appearance she had walked in with.

“That’s what I said!” Jen exclaimed from the corner.

“We had word from some unknown entity that several beasts were heading this way after the apparent appearance of a god in the temple, if the rumours are to be believed. You wouldn’t know anything more about this?” she asked.

I let out a nervous chuckle. “I know a little, but a god didn’t appear. She just accepted our offering.” I went on to explain everything I knew, with our suspecting it was Alira from up north and Sylverith from the west.

“Right, so our only concern is the sea creature, then…” she said, looking to be in thought.

“It’s alright, dear. I’ll speak with him if he shows up,” a voice said from behind Kathrine.

Sylverith, with a soft smile, walked into the room, her form looking very translucent.

“And it is Alira making her way here, though I don’t know how long it will take. The demons have also gone into retreat, fearing a large strike,” Sylverith explained.

“Retreat? Demons don’t retreat.”

“Yes, dear. They are not mindless beasts, as you believe. They will retreat if they feel they need to, though I don’t know how long it will last,” Sylverith said.

“I see. Wait, if you’re here in this form, does that mean another dragon is coming from the west? The old man said a dragon was arriving,” Kathrine asked, confused.

“No, dear. I was just using a lot of mana to get here as fast as possible,” Sylverith smiled.

“So, Alira is coming for dinner, then?” I asked, looking at Sylverith.

“No,” she laughed, “though it saves me sending a message to her to have a look at Crisplet’s statue.”

“All of you need to leave the kitchen. I have work to do and a dinner to prepare for!” I announced.

Again, I get that the safety of the capital was important, but so were my mashed tubers, which had started to overcook, and everything sounded like it was in hand besides the demons, so nothing to worry about…

Right?