Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

I just stared up at Milo, who was still holding out the ring towards me.

“It... It’s too much,” I stammered, as Milo gently took hold of my hand and slipped the ring onto my finger.

“Nonsense. We, as a group are investing in our party members. It only makes sense,” Milo said, releasing my hand once the ring adjusted to my finger. I could barely even feel it there. Liane and Jen both nodded in agreement.

“He’s right, you know. Now you’ll be able to carry Crisplet without getting burnt,” Jen said, as the little flame elemental shot out bright sparks and floated over to my shoulder. I could still feel some heat, but it was just warm—not hot.

“Just... err, watch the hair,” Liane chuckled as I started to smell burnt hair.

“Damn,” I muttered, but it was worth it to have Crisplet on my shoulder. “I... I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much,” I said, looking down at the ring on my finger. With the resize, I could see the gems a little more clearly, though it was still a very thin ring.

“I guess now is as good a time as any... but what does Water Purification do?” I chuckled.

Milo laughed. “It won’t be much use if I’m conjuring water for you, but you’ll find that you have access to an ability that allows you to purify water from other sources, like a river or lake, leaving you with clean, fresh water. Usually, the cost is based on how much water you want to purify. So, you won’t be able to run up to Lake Veyran and purify the whole thing.”

It was then that I noticed Hari come up the stairs and enter the room. Spotting us quickly, he made his way over.

“All done in there?” he asked, and Milo nodded.

“Perfect. Well, I got our earnings from the job. It should have been 6 gold, but it seems Troy paid 7 gold 50 silver instead. So, we still get our 1 gold 50 silver each.” Hari handed the coin pouch to Jen to take her share.

“So, did you find the book? Or Fire Resistance? I assume you did, since Crisplet is on his shoulder, and only his hair is slightly smouldering,” Hari asked with a chuckle.

“No luck on the book, but we got him a ring with resistance and water purification,” Milo said, gesturing to the ring on my finger.

“Nice, within budget?” Hari asked.

“Yep, 20 gold and 15 silver for it. Well within budget,” Milo responded happily.

Budget? What budget? I thought to myself. My confused look must’ve caught Hari’s eye.

“We all agreed to pitch in to get you the item, so I’m glad we managed to find one!” Hari said jovially before turning around.

“What say we get lunch? Today’s been a lot less stressful than I expected, and now I’m starving!” he added. Liane and Jen both nodded emphatically.

“Sounds good to me. Then we’ll go book hunting after that. The one inside was… well, outside of any of our budgets,” Milo said with a laugh, before continuing to explain the quizzical look from Hari.

“It was a book for master scribes. It cost 1800 gold,” he said again, still chuckling.

Hari’s eyes went wide, mouthing ‘1800’ as if he couldn’t find the words.

“They make way too much money if they can casually buy an 1800 gold book...” Hari muttered, leading us to the stairs and out of the Guild.

“Oh, sorry, before we leave,” I said, interrupting them. “Is there something we can get for Crisplet to stay in at night?”

Crisplet let off a burst of bright sparks, almost as if to agree with me.

I knew Milo had the lantern, but I couldn’t shake the thought that it was too small, especially since the lantern was roughly the same size as Crisplet.

Milo was the first to respond. “Not in the guild, no... But I think I may know a place we can detour past on the way to get the book. Everything up here will be similar-sized lanterns or smaller,” he said, gesturing around him.

Following Hari, we left the guild. I was surprised that he knew where to go as we turned down streets, eventually arriving at a large, single-story building. It looked like an inn, but everyone was sitting at tables eating, and there seemed to be a lot of fish and things from the lake. The food smelled amazing, and I was ready to eat the moment we walked through the door.

“Greetings, welcome to Marinar’s Restaurant. Table of five today?” the lady at the entrance asked. After Hari confirmed, we were escorted to a table, and several jugs of water were placed in front of us. I was surprised to find that the water was actually cold.

When a man approached the table, Hari took the lead again.

“Hello, could we get two seafood group platters, please? Water’s fine for drinks,” he asked. The man nodded and left.

“So, we’re going to try their seafood platters, Trev. We’ve had them before, and they’re amazing. But this way, you can try lots of different things from the lake, and see how they’re cooked,” he said, a giant smile on his face.

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It didn’t take long for the food to arrive. The platters were massive. There was a whole fish, several creatures in their shells that looked almost like giant insects—one even had claws. There were smaller ones, open and drenched in a spicy, yet amazing sauce.

“Well, don’t just gawk, try everything,” Hari said with a chuckle. I did just that. I tried everything. The fish was nice; its flesh was flaky and full of flavour, but despite being delicious, it didn’t even come close to the best dish. The ones called Lake Vayren Bugs—which had a hard outer shell and soft white flesh inside—were cooked with garlic grass and butter. That came in solid second place for me.

But the winner? The small black-shelled creatures. You’d open them up and eat the meat inside the shell, which was coated in a chilli sauce. The flavour was an explosion in my mouth. It tasted so good that I practically finished off the entire bowl from one of the platters, much to Jen’s amusement.

My least favourite were the oysters. They tasted like salty slime. Apparently, Hari absolutely loved them though and nearly ate all of them from both platters.

Overall, the meal was amazing—easily one of, if not the, best meals I’ve ever had in my life.

When we were done, Hari got up to pay for the meal, and we all regrouped outside the restaurant. Afterward, we split up. I went with Milo to get the book, while Liane decided to tag along with us. Jen and Hari went off to handle other errands.

I followed Milo through the streets, trying to follow along with the map, but I came to regret it almost immediately. I walked directly into someone, and after much apologising, I figured it was safer to just focus on where I was going than to try learning the map on the go.

Our first stop wasn’t the bookstore, though. Instead, we were going to find something for Crisplet. I wasn’t sure what Milo had in mind, but I trusted he knew what he was looking for.

After a short while, Milo seemed to find the place he was looking for. From the outside, it didn’t look very fancy. It seemed to be a store specialising in different kinds of lanterns. As we walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to find that lanterns were only part of what they offered. There were lanterns of all shapes and sizes, as well as cooking stoves and ovens in every variety, indoor fireplaces with metal tubes leading to the roof, and then, what Milo seemed to settle on... well, it was odd.

It could best be described as a contained campfire. The base was made of iron, shaped almost like a flower, with decorative walls around it. Like the lanterns, there were glass edges, but unlike the lantern, this one had no closed top. I also noticed most of them contained runes inside, likely for starting and controlling the fire.

We were approached by the store clerk.

“Greetings, can I help you with anything today?” she asked.

“Yes, actually,” Milo replied. “We were looking at a contained open hearth like this one, but we don’t need the runes inside. It will primarily be used to house the flame elemental while indoors,” he said, gesturing to Crisplet.

Only then did the lady notice Crisplet, doing a double-take before quickly regaining her composure.

“Ah, yes, absolutely,” she said. “We have some models. Did you need it to be fully enclosed?”

“No, actually,” Milo said, “It’s important that it’s not enclosed. We’re also not worried about the glass panels on the sides. It needs to be hardy and good for travel.”

The lady nodded thoughtfully.

“Well, we don’t have any out here, but... we have a fully iron one that the apprentices have made, which doesn’t have glass or runes to keep costs down,” she said.

“That sounds perfect!” Milo said excitedly. “May we see one?”

“Well, we don’t have them in the store. The apprentices build them in the crafting sector, but if you’d like to come back in a couple of hours, we can certainly have some ready for you to see,” she explained, a little nervously.

“That’s not a problem at all. We have some other things to buy as well. We’ll drop by in a couple of hours on our way back,” Milo said. With that, we left the store.

“That’s that sorted; now to find the book,” Milo said happily as we continued on our way.

The trip to the scholar’s sector took quite a while. We made our way back to the main road, then seemed to loop around the temple before finally standing outside a store with a carved wooden sign that read ‘Magic Scriptorium and Book Supplies.’

“This one won’t have the Runescribe book,” Milo said as we approached the door, “well, it won’t have any books. We’re here for supplies.”

The moment we entered, a booming voice greeted us.

“NOPE OUT! This is a paper store, you madman, and you walk in with a flame elemental! Are you crazy?”

Milo looked at me, then at Crisplet. “Huh, oh yeah, I suppose that’s a bad combination. Do you mind, Crisplet, just becoming an orb while we do some shopping?”

Crisplet glowed brightly, seemingly able to read the situation well enough to avoid bursting into sparks. It floated to my hand and transformed into its orb form, which seemed to satisfy the store owner at least a little.

We were allowed inside, though I wasn’t sure Milo would have much luck haggling, especially after noticing the glares the owner was sending our way while we were in the store.

In the end, Milo purchased several blank notebooks, a quill, and several ink pots. I bought a lower-quality notebook and a handful of charcoal sticks. Amusingly, the charcoal went into my storage, but the notebook did not... well, not yet anyway.

It cost me 50 silver, and, as I had expected, there was no haggling. The owner kept ranting about how he’d nearly witnessed his life’s works go up in flames. It was all very dramatic—Crisplet is barely the size of a fist of flame.

Our next stop was a large bookstore, absolutely crammed with books in every space they could fit—except for where you needed to walk. Even then, you had to step around or over piles. There was no way we’d have been able to find anything ourselves in here, but as we walked through to find the owner, I was amazed at the array of topics. Everything from romance, to inventions, to history, and the beasts of the world. There were plenty of books on different dungeons around the world, even cookbooks! Although I couldn’t afford them, yet...

Then, I saw a massive section dedicated to magic. In fact, half the store seemed focused on the study of magic.

Eventually, Liane spotted the store owner, who was asleep.

“Hello?” Milo said to the older man, who was snoozing with an open book in front of him.

“Huh, what? Uh, sorry, I was just resting my eyes! Hello, customers! Welcome to my shop! How may I assist you today?” The elderly man said, wiping the book in front of him before closing it.

Milo took the lead while Liane chuckled softly.

“Greetings! We’re looking for an introductory book on designing runes, as well as a beginner’s guide to Runescribing,” Milo said, waiting for the man to pull himself together.

“Ah, yes, runes. We have a few books on the topic. Hmm... let’s see here,” the man said, hobbling out from behind his desk and leading us deeper into the labyrinth of books. It took a little while, but eventually, he seemed to find what he was looking for.

“Here we go: Runescribe Introductions, Runescribe Beginner’s Guides... Ah, here it is,” he said, pulling down a very worn tome and handing it to Milo. I peered over his shoulder, intrigued.

Basic Rune Design

Master Scribe E. Jako

“This will be perfect. Do you also have an index of publicly known runes available?” Milo asked.

“Hmm, no, not here. You’d likely need to see a Master Scribe or apprentice under one. That book has some basics, though,” the old man grunted, almost as if he took it personally that he didn’t have access to such a book himself.

“Well, we’ll absolutely take this one, and it looks like we’ll just need to keep hunting for the index,” Milo said with a jovial tone, clearly unfazed.

Surprisingly, the book only cost me 1 gold. Still, I was already down 1 gold 50 silver today, and I still needed clothes and supplies.

After we left the store, Crisplet burst out of my pocket and took his place back on my shoulder. We continued to browse the scholar’s section, but it seemed that Milo didn’t find anything else that might help, so we started heading back to the lantern store. All in all, today had been successful. We survived the meeting, did some shopping, and even got our next job!

“Right, do we check out this kitchen after we pick up the portable hearth, or go back to the inn?” Milo asked with a huge smirk.

“We absolutely go look at the kitchen!” I said excitedly. Of course, I’d want to see where I could do some cooking over the next week or two!