Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Slowly heading my way back to the inn, I noticed a few notifications coming through

Notifications:

You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal

You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal

You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal

Well, I guess lunch service had started at the Inn—I’d completely forgotten that leftover stew could also provide experience. Would I hit Level 5 today, after all?

I rushed back to the inn, eager to be there in case help was needed. Inside, I spotted more than just three people with stew in front of them. Heading into the kitchen, I found Geo smiling.

“How’d you go?” he asked right away, before I could even ask about the food.

“Great, I think. I spoke with Elder Peter about the class. He suggested I invest my points in Intelligence and Charisma. Martin also recommended I help out at the Medical Pavilion—not just for the experience, but because my healing could actually help people,” I explained.

“Yeah, that makes sense. Your Charisma is pretty abysmal; you’d be hard-pressed to convince anyone to try your food if you were running a street stall—or even at the Pavilion,” Geo laughed. “But honestly, Trev, it’s a great idea. I think you should do it. The issue is, if Larry sees you cooking here and taking food elsewhere, he might murder someone. Do you think they’d let you cook at the temple once or twice a week?” he asked. “Maybe I’ll have to ask the Elder.”

Thinking it over, I doubted the temple would have the space—but then I remembered someone with an overly dusty kitchen I could borrow—and offer to clean in exchange.

Changing the topic, Geo asked, “Have you gotten experience today? I’ve already served ten or so customers.”

“I got three notifications on the way here,” I mentioned.

“Sounds like the ‘enjoyable’ part of it is more than just explanation text,” Geo said thoughtfully. After a moment, he added, “The stew is never as good the next lunch service—mainly because it’s served with day-old bread and not as hot. That’s why we only charge a copper for lunch instead of two for dinner,” he explained.

“Four stews, please!” Micca’s voice called through the door. Jumping into action, I took the bowls out to the table as she pointed out.

Returning to the kitchen, it was back to business as usual. Today’s dish was going to be a boar meat pie—a meal I found much simpler in practice than I expected. It basically ended up being several large dishes filled with diced boar meat and vegetables mixed in gravy, topped with mashed tubers.

Geo explained these pies could be made with a bread-like shortcrust pastry to keep everything contained, but he said that with the number of people we’d be serving, it wouldn’t be worth the extra effort.

Once lunch service was done, we’d served around twenty more people, and I had received nine notifications.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I blurted out, staring at my status.

“What is it?” Geo asked, a little concerned, as Micca poked her head in the door.

“I’m just three experience points short of levelling up!” I said, frustrated by the close call. Of course, I’d be that close to Level 5!

“Lucky I haven’t had lunch yet,” Micca said with a big smile. “I’ve always loved your cooking,” she added.

“You’ve only had my solo cooking once before,” I retorted with a laugh.

Taking her bowl along with a freshly cooked roll, I left the kitchen and heard her say, “Exactly! Still always.”

A short time later, the notification came through.

Notifications:

You have earned 25 experience for making an enjoyable meal

You have reached Level 5 in Arcane Chef

You have +2 unspent stat points

You have gained a new ability

You have a new ability selection

Wow, I thought, I get two abilities for level 5. Pulling up the selections; I read over my options.

Choose from the following options:

Clean Cut

Skill type: Passive

Cut to the very soul

Infuse your knife with mana, allowing you to make cleaner and more precise cuts.

Infused Flavour

Skill type: Active

Never underestimate the power of good flavour

You actively infuse mana into your food, allowing you to bring out extra unexpected flavour!

Handle the Heat

Skill type: Passive

No need to leave the heat, You’re here to stay

Provides a fire resistance buff for all cooking-related heat.

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Looking over the options, I almost immediately chose the Handle the Heat ability. I hesitated for a moment, though, since it sounded very similar to what Geo had described—basically the standard skill cooks used to manage heat in the kitchen.

But then there was Infuse Flavour, which was clearly unique to the Arcane Chef class. It required actively putting mana into a dish to enhance its flavours, but what did that actually do?

It felt like a gamble—stick with the skill I understood, or venture into the unknown. But I was already on this uncertain path, so I decided to commit and selected Infuse Flavour.

Congratulations! You have gained the ability Infused Flavour.

Congratulations! You have gained the ability Chefs Pantry.

Chefs Pantry? I wondered, pulling up my abilities to look them over:

Basic Meal Prep

Level: 1

Experience: 50/100

Can craft basic meals at an increased pace.

Butchery

Level: 1

Experience: 25/100

Able to identify usable parts, Increased yield from target.

Knifework

Level: 4

Experience: 804/1056

Efficiency with a kitchen knife.

Infused Flavour

Level: 1

Experience: 0/100

Never underestimate the power of good flavour.

Chefs Pantry

Level: 1

Experience: 0/100

Every chef needs a place to store the special stuff.

I groaned audibly. “Why does every skill need to be so vague with descriptions?” I muttered, forgetting Geo was still there watching me

.

“What did you get?” he asked with a gleam in his eye. “The early levels are the best—you get all the abilities quickly before it slows way down past level 20.”

“Uh… I’ve got two abilities. One I chose from three options, the other was just granted as part of levelling up,” I explained.

“First, the one I chose is Infused Flavour. It says I can actively infuse mana into a dish to increase the flavour. The other options were the fire-resistance buff for cooking-related items you explained, and a more precise cutting skill. Honestly, it was super vague beyond what Knifework already does.”

I paused, still staring at the skill I’d been given automatically. “And the other is called Chef’s Pantry. All it says is that a chef needs a place to store the special stuff… but I have no idea what that means.”

Geo thought for a long moment. “You’re not wrong; they’re very vague. But my guess? Some form of storage. A cook’s pantry will always hold ingredients.” He grabbed a tuber off a nearby counter and tossed it to me. “Here, mentally try to store that,” he said.

I nearly dropped it, startled by the sudden throw, but I focused as instructed—though I had no idea where it was supposed to go.

Would you like to store 1x [Common] Tuber for 5 mana? Yes/No

Mentally selecting yes, the tuber vanished from my hand. I stared at my empty palm in shock—even Geo’s jaw dropped.

“It’s like a Bag of Holding!” he said, practically bouncing with excitement.

“Uh… yeah. It said it costs five mana to store that tuber.” Geo winced slightly.

“Five mana for a single item is going to get expensive fast, but we need to test this. You’ve got mana to spare, right?” He practically dove into the cupboards, pulling out a variety of items—a pot, a bag of tubers, plates, a coin, and some rags.

While he did that, I tried to figure out how to view the stored contents. Eventually, I realised I could access my pantry inventory through my status window.

Chefs Pantry Contains:

1x [Common] TuberWell, that was going to be useful. I was still mulling that when Geo nudged me.

“Right, here we go. Let’s start with the other stuff and leave the bag of tubers last in case it drains all your mana,” he said, passing me a pot.

Would you like to store 1x Iron Pot for 5 mana? Yes/No

Again selecting yes, it vanished. Next, I was handed a copper coin.

Unable to store, not eligible food-related item.

“No luck on the coin,” I said, frowning a little. It would have been nice to store my coins in a place no one could take them.

Next, Geo passed me two different plates and placed the rag on top of one of them. “Here, try this. It’s a kitchen rag, so who knows.”

Holding the two plates and the rag, I again tried to put them all in my holding space.

Would you like to store:

1x [Common] Small Plate1x [Common] Small Plate1x [Common] Kitchen RagFor 15 mana? Yes/No

I selected yes, and all three items vanished. Geo practically clapped.

“Okay, finally, let’s try this,” he said, handing me a bag with about twenty tubers. “Don’t drain all your mana if it’s going to cost too much.” I nodded and took it.

Would you like to store 23x Common Tuber for 5 mana? Yes/No

Selecting yes, all the tubers vanished, leaving only an empty bag.

“How bizarre,” Geo said, taking the bag. “Did you run out of mana or something?”

“No, it only cost me five mana for all 23 tubers,” I said, still a bit confused. “But it cost five mana per plate.”

“Ah,” he mused. “So items of the same type stack for a single mana cost, while different items count separately. Makes sense.” He chuckled. “Alright, let’s pull everything back out. I want to see if tubers rain down on you if you withdraw all 24.”

Deciding to get the potential embarrassment over with, I opened the inventory and mentally withdrew the tubers.

Would you like to remove 24x Common Tuber for 5 mana? Yes/No

Selecting yes, I braced myself—expecting a cascade of tubers to fall on my head—but they neatly piled on the bench-top instead.

“It still cost me five mana to pull them out,” I said to Geo. I withdrew the rest of the items, which also appeared orderly in front of me.

I checked my mana 115/170 and remembered that I’d gained two Intelligence points from my level up.

“And you said this is an ability, right?” Geo asked. “Did it give experience?”

Pulling up the info, I saw Chef’s Pantry was at 11/100 experience.

“One experience per store-and-withdraw cycle,” I said, “but not per item—the bag of tubers counted as one.”

Geo grinned. “Right, well, there’s one more thing to test.”

I frowned. We’d pretty much figured out the pantry. He pointed to the pies cooking near the stove.

“Infuse flavour into that,” he said.

Ah, of course. I’d completely forgotten I had the other new skill. I moved close to the pot, unsure of exactly what to do, and placed my hands near the stew, attempting to infuse it with mana.

Food not eligible. Not made by Arcane Chef.

“It didn’t work,” I said, frowning. “It says the food wasn’t made by an Arcane Chef.”

Geo’s face lit up. “Oh! We still have a bit of your stew left over from last night, right?” He excitedly pulled the dregs from the lunch pot. “Here, try this.”

Would you like to Infuse Common Venison Stew for 50 mana? Yes/No

I selected yes. The stew glowed briefly, then returned to its normal colour. I squinted at it—no visible changes.

“I think I did it?” I said, uncertain. “But it doesn’t say what it actually does beyond infusing it with mana.”

Geo leaned over, also peering into the pot. After a moment, he said, “Guess we try it then.”

Before I knew it, he had two bowls and was portioning out the last of the stew.

“Well, bottoms up,” he said, taking a bite. I mirrored him. It didn’t taste noticeably different—maybe not different at all.

“Did it do anything?” I asked.

Geo took another bite, then presumably checked his status screen. His eyes widened.

“You didn’t see it?” he asked, incredulous.

“See what?” I said, checking my own status. Everything looked normal.

“It gave me a +1 Dexterity buff,” Geo said, in awe. “Food doesn’t give stat buffs—only potions, and expensive ones at that.”

“It doesn’t say how long it lasts, though,” he added.

Geo was lost in thought for a long while before he seemed to snap out of it.

“Well, damn, we need to get dinner prepared—and fast. Get those pies in the oven now, Trev,” he said, realising how late it was getting and how much time we had spent testing and messing around.

Dinner was more hectic than usual, partly due to small delays from the pie, but also because I was so distracted by the day I could hardly keep myself focused on the task. I really needed to speak with Micca, but the night didn’t allow us even a moment to talk.

Especially with Larry being extra hard on her, blaming her for, and I quote, “leaving me to basically die here alone.” I found it a bit dramatic, but I didn’t say a word about it—well, not at the inn, anyway.