Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Before we left the inn, I remembered to quickly check my notifications from the day before. There were 52 more since yesterday, but it wasn’t enough to push me over a level. I was, however, getting close to that level 20 mark—and I’d get a new skill!

Name: Trevor

Class: Arcane Chef

Rarity: Rare

Level: 19

Experience: 12834/14924

Hit points: 290/290

Mana: 530/530

Stamina: 160/290

Strength: 13

Dexterity: 29

Endurance: 29

Intelligence: 53

Wisdom: 27

Charisma: 10

Willpower: 12

Perception: 8

Luck: 6

Unspent: 2

As we left the inn, I felt excited for the day ahead. The study hadn’t been as bad as I’d expected, but this—this was what I was looking forward to!

“So, where to first?” I asked curiously.

“Clothes and some light armour,” Jen said confidently. I noticed Liane just nodded along beside her.

“Armour?” I asked, genuinely surprised. I didn’t see that as necessary; I wasn’t getting into combat.

“Of course. Just because you won’t be fighting doesn’t mean you’ll avoid danger. Might I remind you—you’ve already been shot by an arrow and nearly killed by a Galvonson?” Jen listed off my near-death experiences.

Truthfully, I had mostly forgotten the arrow. That whole event had been buried deep and only resurfaced now to torment me in my sleep.

“It’ll just be light armour anyway,” Liane added helpfully, “something to protect you from stray fire. A bit like the stuff I wear. It won’t hinder your movement at all, just provides extra protection in vital areas.”

I nodded. It made sense when they put it like that.

“After clothes, could we find a place to buy a cooking pan and an enchanted knife?” I asked hopefully. Jen nodded and kept leading the way.

The first store we came to was a tailor’s. In the windows, there were both regular tunics and trousers, but also robes similar in style to what Milo wore—and dresses. I’d only ever seen those in the city itself.

Before entering, Crisplet had reverted to its orb; we didn’t want a repeat of the paper shop incident with clothes this time.

Inside, however, the store was vastly different from what I expected. I thought I’d see racks of clothes scattered around, but instead there were rolls and rolls of fabric, a counter in the middle, and several wooden statues at the back of the room.

“Greetings, ladies, sir,” an elderly woman said, noticing us come through the door. “What can I help you with today? Perhaps a couple of lovely dresses?” She approached from behind the counter with a beaming smile.

Jen took the lead as Liane looked visibly uncomfortable at the idea of a dress.

“Actually, I was hoping to get a couple of outfits for our young teammate here. As I’m sure you can tell, his are a little worse for wear, and we can’t have him bringing the rest of us down,” Jen said with a chuckle, clearly playing into the lady’s jovial nature.

“Oh, absolutely! I can already see that torn shirt and those pants won’t do at all. Yes, yes, we can make something for him. Come here, my boy, let’s get your measurements,” she said, motioning me forward. I passed the fire orb to Jen, who just stood there smirking.

“Do you have in mind what you’re after?” the lady asked, wrapping a piece of string around my waist, arms, chest, and legs.

“Uh…” I started, before Jen stepped in and saved me again.

“We need him to have something tough but comfortable. We’ll be going on long journeys through some very dangerous places, so it needs to withstand the wear of armour and hide the stains of action,” Jen explained. The lady nodded in full understanding, and after that, she directed all further questions to Jen.

“Quantity?” she asked.

“At least four, but we’re on a deadline. They’ll need to be done before the week is out,” Jen replied.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Yes, yes, dear. I’m a professional, not a sham. I can have these done by tomorrow morning—three silvers each,” the lady said.

We agreed on the price, I handed over the money, and left the store. The whole experience was easier than I had expected, and twelve silvers wasn’t too bad.

That left me with four gold, thirty-eight silver, and a small handful of copper if I needed it. Next on the shopping list was armour, specifically leather, and for that, we were heading back to the guild. By this stage, Crisplet had returned to my shoulder. It took all of about four steps from leaving the shop before he burst out of the orb.

As we entered the guild and made our way to the top floor, I decided then and there that I was going to try the roast meat on our way out—it smelled incredible.

Heading upstairs, I was surprised to see Liane actually take charge, leading us to a rough-looking shop. Hides of beasts lined the walls, and several mannequins were dressed in various sets of armour. Behind the counter stood a lithe-looking man, who came around as soon as we entered.

“Ah, a rogue and an archer, I see. How may I assist you all today?” he said, bowing slightly.

“We’re looking to get a set of basic armour for our support member here. It’s important he has full movement, but that it protects the vitals,” Liane said in an almost cold tone. It actually surprised me a little; this wasn’t the Liane I normally saw.

“Yes, of course. What’s his fighting style?” the man asked, looking between Liane and me.

“Not important—treat it almost like a pugilist,” Liane responded. This time, I was certain; this was a completely different tone than I was used to. Jen didn’t react at all, but Crisplet must have been thinking the same as me. I couldn’t help but notice that his usual bright-orange, candle-like flame had changed into something more intense—resembling a roaring smith’s forge.

The man, however, carried on unbothered. “Absolutely. We have several options. Does it need to be enchanted or non-enchanted?” he asked, leading us over to several sets on display.

“Non-enchanted is fine,” Liane replied.

“We’d need to fit it to him if they’re unenchanted, obviously, but we have three sets here that already meet the requirements. First, we have the most basic: goes over the head, basic protection on the shoulders, double-layered across the chest to guard the heart from minor piercing attacks, and runs down to the thighs here,” he said, showing us the gear. It did look very basic.

“The next option covers the sides, gut, and chest all with pleated leather, with more coverage on the shoulders as well. Lastly, we have a similar design to the pleated, but it comes further down the arm. It protects the groin, and there are thin metal plates between the leather for added piercing protection for the sides and the heart, but there isn’t much additional weight,” he explained.

Jen and Liane both looked thoughtful.

“Well, Trev, what do you think?” Liane asked me—and this time, her tone was completely different! Like night and day. She’d been cold and serious with the man, but when she spoke to me, she was happy, jovial, even warm. Had this man offended her before?

“Uh… honestly, I don’t know. I trust your judgement,” I said, shrugging. Truthfully, I really didn’t know. We hadn’t been taught much about armour options at the academy; we were shown the military uniform and told we’d be assigned one if we became soldiers—and that was it.

“We’ll take the third option, please,” Jen said, making the choice for us.

The man seemed pleased, taking it off the hook and bringing it over to me.

“Right, let’s see how much resizing we need to do here,” he said, slipping it over my head and tightening the straps.

“Not bad, not bad. We can have this ready by tomorrow morning. That will be two gold,” he added. It stung a little, but since Liane and Jen suggested this one, I simply handed over the coins, gave my name, and we exited the store.

Once we were a few steps away, my curiosity got the better of me.

“Did you not like that person, Liane?” I asked bluntly.

She looked confused for a moment, but Jen just laughed.

“No, Trev, she just acts that way to people she doesn’t know. Scary, isn’t it?” Jen said, still chuckling.

“What way? What do you mean? I just asked him questions!” Liane said, defensive.

“Yeah, ‘questions’ while looking and sounding like you were going to murder him in his sleep,” Jen said, now giggling as we made our way back downstairs.

“It’s not really that bad, is it?” Liane asked.

“It’s pretty bad,” I added, laughing. “Even Crisplet turned all ominous in colour!” I said, and sure enough, Crisplet burst into bright sparks before settling back into its ominous flame, as if to prove my point.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs leading into the main hall of the guild, I stopped everyone.

“Before we leave, I really want to try the roasted meat sticks over there. They smell amazing,” I said, pointing to the food stall. Both Liane and Jen shrugged and followed me anyway. I got two different kinds—one I was certain was boar, the other I didn’t recognise. I decided to store it for later so I could check the name on it.

Would you like to store [Common] Roasted Grumfel x1 for 5 mana? Yes/No

“What’s a Grumfel?” I asked curiously, having never heard of it before.

“Fat little furry round ball,” Liane said between bites. “They’re slow, live on the plains, and everyone eats them. Farmers both love and hate them—they’re easy food, but they also tear up crops. On the plus side, they multiply like crazy.”

We left the stall, finishing our meat sticks as we went. Next on the list was either supplies or cooking equipment, but I didn’t know the best place to get them.

“Cooking equipment time?” I asked hopefully. This was what I’d been waiting for.

“Absolutely,” Jen said with a smile.

“We have a couple of options. We could go to the crafters section and ask around at the smithies, or we could head to the main market and hopefully find a store dedicated to cooking equipment near the other food stalls,” Jen explained.

“Market, I say,” Liane added.

“Market it is then! Lead the way!” I said, thrilled at the thought of possibly getting a new knife and pan.

It didn’t take long to reach the main market. We just hit the massive road again and followed it into the centre of town, where the streets opened into a giant circle. The centre was filled with stalls of all kinds, wagons weaving through the crowd.

I was blown away by the options. There were fruits and vegetables I’d never seen before, countless meat vendors with the craziest cuts, and fish stalls everywhere. Some vendors even had livestock—perfect for getting my butcher level up!

There were shops selling clothes and random trinkets, a few bookshops, and even a cookbook. Too expensive for me, unfortunately, but it was nice to see.

Eventually, we found part of what we were after: a store selling pots and pans. No enchanted knives, sadly, but I managed to grab three pans. One was a large, round, flat pan with a heavy base—perfect for pancakes. Another was a bowl-shaped pan, fairly thin with a wooden handle. The last was a regular pan, not as heavy on the base, but it came with a solid metal lid.

All up, they set me back 1 gold 15 silver, but I felt it was worth it. The shopkeeper also gave directions to a smithy that made enchanted knives. Apparently, he didn’t sell them in the regular market because they didn’t move fast.

Following the directions, we found the smithy on the edge of the crafters’ section, just a few roads away. After a minimal amount of haggling, I walked out with my new sharpness-enchanted knife for only 1 gold 10 silver. To think the guy at Forest’s Edge wanted to charge me 5 gold!

That left me with only 12 silver and about 40 copper.

“I’m down to just a few silver now,” I said, a little dejected. My food options would be limited to fairly mundane stuff, but I wasn’t in any rush to waste what little I had left.

“It’s fine,” Jen said. “Before we leave on the job, we’ll hand over one of those Galvonsons to a Monster Knacker. They’ll break it down for us and take a cut, of course, but you’ll get all the parts. I’d suggest giving him the decapitated one—you wouldn’t get any butchering experience on it anyway. He’ll save all the meat and sellable parts.”

We made our way back to the inn, and overall, I was very happy with how shopping had gone. The only thing left before heading out on the job was a visit to the temple with Hari. Honestly, I was a little excited about that. I hadn’t spent much time talking to him yet, but I remembered he’d been the first to take me aside after the attempted ambush. I really wanted to get to know him better.

When we entered the inn, we spotted Hari and Milo immediately. They had one of the larger booths, with several jugs spread across the table. I quickly joined them to fill them in on everything I’d bought today—and, of course, how poor I now was.

At least visiting the temple tomorrow wouldn’t cost me a single coin.