Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Entering the inn, the first thing I spotted was Luis sitting at a table with five other people, two of whom appeared to be guards of the city, while the remaining three were adventurers.

When we briefly locked eyes, he gave me a smirk but carried on chatting and drinking—I had to assume this was part of his efforts to gain information from locals, so I didn’t interrupt, just waving hello to Coral before heading upstairs.

In the living room up top, Crisplet was quick to jump into the fire that had already been burning, with Liane and Milo still sitting nearby, both with books in their hands.

“Did you get anything interesting?” Liane asked.

Nodding, I pulled out the jar of slugs. “I did! Look at these!”

I was surprised when even Liane recoiled a little at them.

“Oh, come on, usually you’re happy to try the strange stuff!” I retorted.

Liane nodded, “Yeah, but they are slimy. I don’t know about slimy.”

Jen laughed from the side, “You had us eat snails.”

“They were not slimy when they are cooked though!” Liane attempted to defend herself.

Truthfully, I had no clue where to even begin cooking it, but that was part of the fun, and worst-case scenario, I knew Lily would like it, and Hari likely wouldn’t even notice.

But I don’t know that I’d get any cooking done tonight, I’d not organised with Wyatt to use the kitchen at all, and the inn was nearly full downstairs.

Falling into the chair, I had to ask, “Did we find out what happened in the capital?”

Milo put his book down. “No word yet. Those who arrived today, who were closer, just said a pillar of fire erupted into the sky from the centre of the capital, claiming it was the palace.”

I frowned, “So it was our house then.”

“Yeah, almost definitely, though we saw Alira leave, we never saw her return, so I don’t really know what exactly would have caused it, but there is still a small pillar of fire in the sky even right now that I’m sure will look brighter as night falls.” Milo said, looking towards the window.

This shocked me. How was it still burning?

“That’s not to say she didn’t return, we were inside when the sky lit up.” Jen added thoughtfully.

Milo nodded, “You’re right, that certainly could be the case.”

Liane shuffled over, making sure she was sitting closer. “What else did you get then?”

I went through all the items I got, getting approving nods, but no one was sure if the roots had ever been used in cooking. Milo was familiar with them, but only in alchemy, where the toxins were neutralised.

I pulled out a book that I had used nowhere near enough The Magical Art of Foraging, Flicking through the pages to try to find the roots, with no luck, however.

“I’m not sure if it’ll actually be in there since it’s a dungeon item, but we still have a little bit of time in the day, I can take you to the guild and we can pick up an item guide there.” Milo said.

I really wanted to see the adventure guild here again, so I was quick to agree and leapt to my feet as I had never got to go in last time we were here.

Crisplet came out of the fire to join us as well, while Jen and Liane stayed behind.

The building itself was impossible to miss, the closest thing I could describe it to was the temple of storm, it was a giant stone building with massive pillars at the front, it looked to be at least four levels high, but it wouldn’t have surprised me at all if it were larger.

As we approached it, climbing the stairs leading to the main doors, I also noticed just how busy it all was, and got a fright when I realised Luis was walking alongside me.

“Figured you’d not mind if I tagged along.” He grinned.

I had not even seen him get up from the inn and join us, but I guess that was the point.

Entering the main hall of the guild it was similar in design to the others we had entered just everything seemed to be on a larger, grander scale, there was several restaurants serving adventurers sitting to the right, it looked like simple food, but it seemed the focus was the drink.

To the left there were dozens of desks manned by staff, and every single one of them was busy.

“There are jobs for items from pretty much everything in the dungeon, so this place is always busy.” Milo explained.

We made our way to the staircase that I knew would lead us to the room with the shops, when a voice called out from the food area.

“Milo! Trevor! Is that you?”

I turned around to see a familiar face, and one that I honestly didn’t expect to see again anytime soon, as Colin was getting up from his chair with a beaming smile.

As he approached, he embraced us both before turning to Milo, “That was quite the reception you lot had at the Capital.”

“You could certainly say that,” Milo laughed.

“When I didn’t see you again, I feared the worst. Then I kept hearing rumours of this fearsome new Lord with a fire elemental, a dragon and a cat.” He looked at me with a giant grin.

I let out an awkward laugh, “Yeah, I heard the rumours got a little crazy. Also, let me introduce you to Lewie.”

Colin nodded to Luis, but didn’t really react past that, just accepting he was there, then moving on.

“What brings you to the guild? Don’t suppose you’re heading to the dungeon?” Colin asked happily.

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Milo shook his head. “No, unfortunately not. We’re on a job up north, but Trev here picked up a bunch of dungeon items to cook, so we’re here to grab a guide to figure out what exactly they are.”

“Oh, you can have mine. I have all the stuff memorised now, and this one has extra notes I’ve taken over the years.” Colin said happily, pulling a well-worn book out of his storage.

Taking it, I bowed slightly. “Thank you, that would be a great help.”

“I’ll leave you to it. It was a pleasure catching up. If you ever want to visit the dungeon, let me know! I’m happy to guide you.” Colin said, waving.

“You know, Trev, Sylverith is on to something. Things do always seem to happen around you,” Luis said in a low tone.

I shrugged, “It’s just meeting someone we met before, that’s all.”

I attempted to wave it off as we approached the stairs, which were flanked by two guards.

“Someone we randomly met twice and travelled with us to a full military confrontation, and then just so happened to run into him when we decided to leave.” Milo said, grinning.

“Coincidence.” I tried to say.

“Sure, sure. Well, we’re here anyway. Let’s go upstairs and have a look.” Milo grinned.

My thoughts quickly turned to the checkpoint in front of us, leading upstairs. I wondered how Luis would go travelling through it. Wouldn’t it expose him for being the prince?

My question was quickly answered as he walked forward. The screen simply flashed Lewie, and that was it. The guards themselves didn’t even look twice at him as he walked through.

For me, however, it seems the guild had kept up with both my name and title change, as the screen flashed Lord Trevor Ashmoon, causing the guards to do a double take, but they didn’t say anything or try to stop me.

“How do they know about the name change?” I asked Milo as we went upstairs.

“That would almost certainly be Hari’s doing. I heard Liane complaining to him about fixing her name.” Milo chuckled.

I wanted to ask Luis how he had his name changed, but this wasn’t the place, and I assumed it was the royal family pulling strings, regardless.

The first floor I was surprised was not a floor full of shops like in previous guilds, but looked to be lined with training rooms, a desk stood at the front with a rates per hour, based on the strength of the room required, the cheapest looked to be three copper and hour, while the most expensive was five gold an hour.

“Who’s using the five gold training room? And why’s it so much?” I asked almost in a whisper.

“Not many people, but the room itself is expensive to operate due to the large mana cost.” Milo explained.

“So, would you use that room?” I asked honestly—I had seen Milo going all out with his spells, they were terrifying.

He let out a loud snort of laughter, “Absolutely not, the rooms for a couple of silver are more than powerful enough for us.”

This blew my mind a little. If the low silvers were enough for the team, then just how strong were the people who required the gold, and what were they doing with their time? What was strong enough for them to even hunt?

“So how many here would be strong enough for the gold room then?” I asked, looking around.

“You’d be lucky to see one; at that level, you keep things private,” Milo laughed.

Everywhere in this guild there seemed to be adventurers lingering about, and it was incredible to see such a wide array of armour and weaponry, as we made our way to the next floor, there was an elderly man wearing what I thought to be brown robe initially, but as we got closer, I realised it was made entirely of scales.

I also couldn’t help but notice a few heads turning towards me, which made me nervous, not that I was worried about my safety here, but I didn’t want Lily to appear in the middle of everyone here, surely an adventurer who used the gold room would try to fight her.

Reaching the floor with all the shops felt like I had entered a whole new market. There were a few familiar sights: a shop selling a large variety of potions, though I couldn’t help but notice a few sold-out signs even from here.

There were four magical item shops that I could see right from the top of the stairs, along with a very large loot house, though I noted this one looked for more organised from the outside that the last one I entered.

There was also a bookshop, but it appeared to be mostly guides and magical texts describing the flows of mana, which, on second thought, likely wouldn’t be a bad idea to get eventually.

With our main goal already achieved here in terms of getting the guide, seeing the loot house however, gave me a thought.

Pointing to the loot house, “Let’s go over there.”

I couldn’t help but notice that Luis had already mingled with the crowd; he really was taking this job seriously, it seems.

“Something you need to sell?” Milo asked.

“No, but we can buy there, right?” I asked.

Milo nodded but looked unsure, “Yeah?”

The shop was manned by a lady who looked tiny; she came to below my shoulders, and didn’t look like she’d be able to lift half the items in the store, that said if there was one thing I was learning its looks can be deceiving.

“Welcome, looking to sell?” She called cheerily as we entered.

“Uh, no, I was looking to buy actually. Do you have any woods at all?”

I heard Milo let out an ‘ah’ next to me, as the lady looked to be in thought.

“What are you looking to use it for?” She asked.

“I’m after scraps mostly, the more exotic the better.” I said.

She seemed to think for a moment before pulling out a couple of smaller branches, then started to pull out several broken handles.

“If it’s just scrap you’re after, we have a few dozen kilos of Willos, this one.” She pushed forward a branch that was grey-blue and almost appeared wet.

“Then we have far too much of this stone oak; it’s been far too brittle to use in crafting so far. Then, lastly, if you’re just after scraps, I have countless broken handles.” She smiled.

Seeing the handle came as somewhat of a revelation, even when she pulled it out, it didn’t glow blue, but as I really put my mind to it, I imagine just breaking it down into splinters or chips, or just using it as a log on the fire, it was actually perfect.

The system seemed to agree as it got a faint blue glow.

“What are the costs?” I asked, doing my best not to seem too interested.

“One silver a kilo for the Willos, I’ll sell the stone oak for two silver a kilo, and the broken handles, let’s say five copper each.” She smiled.

And I was about to try to haggle when Milo, who’d stayed quiet till now, spoke up.

“At those prices, it’s an absolute rip-off. Let’s go Trev, we’ll just get the stuff when we reach the capital.” He sounded very serious.

It wasn’t until he mentioned heading to the capital that I realised this was all a ploy he was making.

“It’s the best I can do.” She tried to protest.

“We’re asking for scraps, and you’re trying to sell it as a premium product. You said yourself the stone oak can’t be used in crafting, so what, you’ll just sit on it forever?” Milo laughed, turning around to walk away.

“Wait! Okay, one silver a kilo for the stone oak, it’s from the seventh level of the dungeon!” She said.

“There is grass on the tenth floor, would you buy it for a gold?” Milo retorted.

“No… No I wouldn’t.” She said.

“Exactly, just because it’s from a dangerous level doesn’t make it valuable. Twenty copper a kilo for the stone oak, fifty copper a kilo for the willos, and we’ll buy all of your handles at two copper each.” Milo said firmly.

I pulled out a gold coin to really sell the deal, I’d noticed showing the money was often enough, and it seemed to work in this case as well, I wanted to tell Milo we didn’t need all the handles only the rare ones, but worst case we could use it as firewood.

“Fine!” she said, letting out a breath.

In the end, we left the guild without Luis, but we left with close to four hundred assorted broken handles, though most I noted did not seem special at all, so we likely just got a lot of firewood, seventeen kilos of willos and over two-hundred and fifty kilos of stone oak.

I did not know if any of this would be useful, but everything only cost us seventy silver, and that to me was worth the risk, especially since I saw some very interesting handles in the mix.

I was very glad we came to the guild.