Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

I looked at Gilain, confused. Morran? Did Gilain know him?

Clearly, Gilain was as confused as I was, as he was also looking between myself and Morlin.

“Seems you have some explaining to do as well,” Sylverith joked.

Morlin just grunted, “Apparently so. How did you beat me here? Last I saw, you were in the capital.”

Sylverith smiled, “I was already on my way here.”

“Imagine my surprise that during the middle of the night, there happens to be a burst of mana as I’m surrounded by the grains of life,” Morlin said, looking at me directly.

I put my hands up, “Hold on just a second, we’re not ignoring the two-names thing here.”

Morlin waved it off, “I’ve gone by many names, young Trevor.”

“You were an elder of the conclave for several centuries before you died in your sleep,” Gilain said, sounding outraged.

“Ah, yes, well, it was getting boring, Master Gilain. I’m sure you’re familiar with that trouble, especially if you’re here, presumably not following their orders, since I can’t imagine you’d risk your life so recklessly,” Morlin said.

The glare that Sylverith gave him a moment later answered my earlier question about reading his thoughts, I guessed.

Gilain raised his hands, “I’ve no intention to hurt Trevor or anyone else here, especially not Lily. I swore an oath on my class, and I intend to keep it.”

“We both know those oaths are not as secure as they may seem,” Sylverith said, now looking angry.

Gilain still had his hands raised, “I do, but there are no falsehoods here.”

“You can?” I asked, confused.

Sylverith let out a sigh, “Yes, like how you tried to store the carriage. If you’re able to convince the system you’re not actually breaking the oath, they can be circumvented; you just need to be sufficiently creative.”

Morlin took a seat next to Sylverith, “For what it’s worth, I believe him. Master Gilain has long held the Thelran Conclave in contempt; they use old oaths against him to wield him as a weapon until he goes missing for a long time.”

“And it’s those old oaths that bother me,” Sylverith said.

My mind was still latched onto the two-name thing. Right now, I had no idea who this person was. Was he really the adventurer Morlin? Or did he simply adopt that name?

“Who are you really?” I asked.

Morlin waved the question off, “An observer.”

“You’ve been doing a lot of interacting for an observer,” Sylverith commented.

Morlin raised an eyebrow, “And you’ve been very involved for a creature who swore she’d never share words with any humanoid race again. We both have our reasons.”

“So what occurred tonight?” Morlin asked, looking around.

I let Milo explain the event at the temple. Truthfully, I was getting very tired; it felt like all the events of the night were wearing off and the fact it was only a few hours before sunrise was catching up to me.

Morlin was agreeing with Milo’s assessment so far, nodding along.

Finally Morlin said, “I agree with your assessment. Long ago, this world’s mana levels were drastically higher than what they are now, and it feels to me that Trevor is resetting that, to what end I have not worked out.”

Sylverith seemed surprised, “Though I’m not against restoring the world’s mana, as I mentioned to Trevor just a moment ago, if he does it suddenly the humans and likely other races will not be prepared for it.”

“Correct, many would die. It’s important we start informing people in charge,” Morlin said calmly.

Sylverith laughed, “We? My dear, you’ve informed the dragon of the forest, and my domain. We’ll be prepared, but I will not be paraded through cities speaking to humans and the like.”

Morlin waved it off, “I wasn’t speaking to you. we have two people here who are already in positions of power to do the talking.”

I looked up in surprise as I had no idea when Luis had returned.

I was distracted from the conversation by Clacks, who was currently sitting on Huling’s finger, flapping her wings. The blue streak had turned a more vivid shade now, and it was unmistakable.

“What do you think, Trevor dear?” Sylverith asked.

I had heard nothing of what they just talked about, and after staring blankly for a moment Sylverith appeared to look towards the window.

“Ah, I forget how much you need sleep, it’s only a couple of hours till sunrise. Get some rest, and we’ll discuss this tomorrow. I’m sure there will be a buzz of activity for that,” Sylverith added.

“Also Lukas might wake up early, Trev, and you’ll want to be awake for that,” Jen added.

I didn’t fight it, I was feeling exhausted.

“Crisplet, did you want to stay here?” I asked, collecting Clacks’ nest as I approached her.

Crisplet immediately gave me a single ember for no.

When I got closer to Clacks though, she leapt off Huling’s finger and appeared to hover for just a second, long enough for me to think she was flying.

Until she fell down.

Huling luckily moved much faster, catching her before she hit the ground, though luckily it wasn’t a large fall.

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“You nearly had it!” Huling said happily.

Clacks just looked at me, letting out a series of loud chirps.

Huling smiled, saying, “Yes, he’s proud of you too, though be careful, he won’t be able to catch you as fast, okay?”

Clacks let out a single chirp, stepping inside her nest.

“Thanks, Huling, I’d panic if she kept leaping out of the nest on me,” I said.

“You won’t have to worry about that much longer. I suspect a week or two and she’ll be flying, I’m sure,” Huling said.

I laughed until I realised she was being entirely serious.

“That soon?” I asked, shocked.

Internally I was really worried about that, would she leave? No, that was silly she took my surname, but I’d need to change my plans of upgrading her nest.

“If she were in the forest, it would probably be about three weeks before she was on her own, I’d guess, but she’s growing faster right now. Look at the blue mark and the chest, those are her proper feathers coming through,” Huling explained.

I heard a laugh from Sylverith at the table.

“It’s not like you to be so helpful and take an interest, Huling,” Sylverith said.

Huling shrugged, “I like Trev. Not many humans will look out for injured creatures, you know.”

“Thanks, Huling, have a good night,” I said.

As I started to make my way to the room, I heard Huling let out a groan, saying, “Not you too.”

A second later, Lily was walking alongside.

***

The next morning I woke up early feeling horrible. Jamal really needed to upgrade the beds; this somehow felt worse than sleeping on the floor. Even Lily went from sleeping on the bed to sleeping next to Crisplet’s brazier.

What caught me by surprise was what could be best described as a tiny fox, pure white, with a bushy tail, no larger than a stray cat, curled up against Lily.

“Huling?” I questioned.

There was no response.

I couldn’t help but wonder how this creature could scare anyone if they actually saw her like this.

Next to Clacks’ nest sat a neat pile of small fish bones that Crisplet had yet to turn into ash, but clearly Lily had gone and got her more snacks. Today I’d make sure to cook a whole batch for her; if she was nearly flying already, she’d need all the strength she could get.

“Ready for breakfast?” I asked.

Clacks gave a chirp instantly from inside the nest as Crisplet happily let off some sparks.

Lily, on the other hand, made me laugh as she just seemed to roll over and drop into the shadow, vanishing, leaving Huling curled on the floor.

I didn’t blame her; she had less of a sleep than I did if she got snacks for Clacks.

However, I didn’t know what to do with Huling. I didn’t want to leave her in the room alone in the middle of the floor.

“Huling, are you coming?” I asked again, a little louder.

Nothing again.

“Crisplet, could you carry Clacks? I’ll carry Huling,” I said with a sigh.

Crisplet immediately let off a burst of sparks approaching the nest as it floated slightly above his arms.

I picked up Huling, noting her fur was incredibly soft, but I did my best not to disturb her too much.

When I made it back to the main room, I looked around, noting that two people had not moved at all. Hari and Gilain looked to be hugging their mugs at the table, still in the same position as when I left.

Milo, however, was on a table of his own with books spread out in front of him, not paying any attention to what was around him.

Jen, Liane, Luis and Jamal all seemed to be missing.

Spotting Sylverith and Morlin sitting at a corner table alone, seemingly in deep discussion, I felt it was the perfect person to take Huling to, as truthfully I had no idea what to do with her.

Sylverith spotted me, her eyes trained on Huling in my arm before a smile cracked across her face.

“Huling, stop pretending to sleep,” she said with a laugh.

Immediately Huling was up and pounced over to the table where she quickly took her semi-humanoid shape, a grin on her face.

“Thanks, Trevor!” she said happily.

“You were pretending?!” I said, surprised.

Huling shifted again, now leaning against Sylverith, “Yeah, there was no way I was sleeping through Lily abandoning me like that. Thanks for carrying me though, Trev!”

Letting out a sigh, I asked, “Any news from the temple?”

“Not that I’ve heard, though I can tell from here there is a lot of activity there today,” she said with a smile.

“It’s chaos there, is what it is,” Morlin added.

Sylverith appeared to look around the room for a moment, before discussing something with Morlin that I couldn’t hear.

“Alright, I’ll have a look at the temple while you talk,” he said with a sigh.

“Sorry to interrupt, Milo dear, could you provide us some privacy for a moment?” she asked.

Milo didn’t even look up from his books; I saw him gesture, and the rush of air mana appeared.

Crisplet, not wanting to miss out, added a wall of ash as well, surrounding us.

“Let’s talk about your soul food, dear. What do you know about it?” Sylverith said.

I laughed, “Basically nothing. I don’t really know what it does, it was a skill I was given automatically when I levelled up.”

“I see, well for Huling here, she has felt stronger, both in magic and physically after eating it, while Lily reported no difference, just stating your food makes her feel full now, for a short time,” Sylverith explained.

“So it healed her?” I questioned.

“That we don’t know, Huling was not aware of any soul damage, so I propose we run a couple of tests; First it could be power related, Huling is ever so slightly more powerful than Lily in terms of level and age, so if it’s okay, I shall try some of your food myself,” Sylverith said.

I immediately pulled out some spare drakon I had made since getting the skill, made sure it was infused and handed it over.

Sylverith seemed surprised to have the food straight away, but she didn’t hesitate, bringing it to her mouth where she started to eat.

Her eyes went wide a moment later, causing me to quickly check my experience.

However, there was no soul experience from that.

“No fair, why does she get one and not me, for testing purposes of course,” Huling said.

“Alright, but no more after this, wait till breakfast,” I said.

I pulled out two more pieces because I knew exactly what was going to happen when I handed it over.

Truthfully, I was wrong. I thought Lily would show up; instead, she just stole the piece of bacon from my hand when I wasn’t looking.

“Again!” Huling said, getting to her feet.

Sylverith still looked surprised. “Trevor dear, there was no soul effect on me that I can see, but the food, it feels substantial, like I’ve taken a full bite of meat in my true form, despite this being incredibly small.”

Huling repeated herself, “It’s made me stronger again! I can feel it.”

Sylverith was quiet for a long time, appearing to be inspecting Huling, though she could have also been talking to her; I’m not entirely sure.

“I have a, well, a friend I suppose, who lives a long way from here. I know he experienced significant soul damage. Would you be willing to provide food for him if I bring him to you?”

“Uh, sure?” I said. I really didn’t expect her to ask.

“Excellent, I will head off later today then. Now Trevor dear, while that man Morlin is gone, I don’t believe he is malicious, but I don’t believe he is who he seems. Also don’t immediately make offerings at all the temples. It would be devastating to your kind, and I don’t think you’re mentally prepared for that blood on your hands, even if it heals the world faster,” Sylverith said directly to my mind.

I sat there stunned at that, not knowing what to respond with.

In the end, I just gave her a simple nod.