Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

It took longer than expected, but in the end I was left with a dark stone statue of Sylverith. Even Lily woke up and did a full lap around it, clearly inspecting it before going over and sitting in front of Crisplet, appearing to be in conversation with him.

“Milo, do you know how Crisplet could make them more permanent?” I asked curiously.

Milo shrugged. “It’s hard to tell without understanding how his abilities work. Normally, though, you need to condense the mana you’re building with to make it last longer. Or, in the case of this one, I just used mana to draw material from below and then compact it into shape, so it’s not actually your mana creating the mass.”

Crisplet seemed to stop his conversation with Lily to listen, giving a burst of sparks when Milo stopped.

“I’m happy to solidify any that you’d like in the meantime, until you figure it out,” Milo said to Crisplet, who again responded with a burst of sparks.

I was surprised when he started building a new one right away.

And when it started with what looked unmistakably like a paw, I had a strong suspicion that Lily was asking where her statue was.

“Lily, do you want your statue inside or outside in the garden?” I asked.

There was a slight pause while Lily looked at me, then at Crisplet.

A moment later, Crisplet was adding grass shards next to the paw he was building.

“Outside it is, then. I’ll put the Sylverith statue in the foyer,” I said.

I’d mostly forgotten Milo was even standing next to me until he interrupted my thoughts about where to put the statues.

“Well, you’re going to need to figure out how to move that, because it won’t fit through the door. It’s not food, so it won’t go in your pantry, and it certainly won’t fit into my storage ring. So I doubt it would fit into anyone else’s here,” Milo said, rubbing his chin.

“That’s a problem I didn’t consider…” I mumbled.

“We could break it and take it out in parts before putting it back together,” Milo offered.

I just shook my head. The idea of breaking it wasn’t something I was willing to do.

I looked around for a possible solution, my eyes landing on the wall that would soon lead into the new butchery room. An idea struck me.

“What if we make a hole in the wall there and take it out that way?” I asked.

Milo just looked at me, stunned for a moment. “I guess? I don’t know if, when I replace it, it will look as good, though,” he said.

“We’ll end up having doors through to the butchery room eventually anyway, right? So it won’t matter if, temporarily, there is a misfitting piece of stone there for the short term,” I said.

Milo nodded. “Okay, so that gets us outside, but this thing will weigh more than both of us combined do, so neither of us will be lifting it.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Luckily, we have a very strong party member outside as we speak, who will have more than enough strength to carry it!”

With a sigh, Milo approached the wall and watched in awe as it crumbled away, taking the shape of a very large double door. Hari would still need to be careful going out—it would be a tight squeeze even now.

When it was done, I saw Milo reinforce the edges with reinforced stone, and several workers who had already started on the butchery room were staring at us.

“Don’t mind us, just moving something,” I called as I ran out the new doorway to try to find Hari.

Finding wasn’t the correct term. You couldn’t miss him. The booms coming from the training yard were incredibly loud. As it came into view, it looked like Hari was hitting a wooden pillar of sorts with a practice sword, but each strike sent a shockwave that kicked dust across the ground.

Darren and George were both standing off to the side and had stopped training when they saw me show up, but it seemed Hari didn’t notice at all.

“Hari!” I yelled.

Nothing.

When Milo showed up, he dropped a small stone onto Hari’s head, causing him to turn around. He had an almost manic look on his face that was somewhat terrifying.

“Didn’t see you! This buff is incredible. I need more!” Hari boomed, his hearing clearly affected by the noise.

“I’ll see what I can do, but, uh… Hari, could you carry something for me? It’s very heavy, and you might be the only one able to,” I asked.

Hari just nodded, storing his sword as he came over and followed us back towards the kitchen.

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“I don’t remember an entrance being this way?” Hari asked curiously.

“Yeah, about that. We made a new one,” Milo chuckled.

Hari’s confusion was soon answered as we entered the kitchen and the statue stood tall. A new statue was forming too—one that I noticed was appearing much larger than Lily usually was, but I had to assume there was some request there.

“We need to take this out the door here, and then all the way out front to bring it into the foyer through the massive entrance doors,” I explained.

Hari turned to look at me, then at Milo. “This is going into the foyer?”

“Yes. I want to preserve the statues that Crisplet makes, and this is the first one I’ve been able to. I want to put it on display, and the foyer seems best,” I said.

Hari pointed to the other one Crisplet was making. “And that one?”

“I assume it’s Lily, so it’ll be going into the front garden,” I said, getting a burst of sparks from Crisplet.

“You know it’s going to be viewed as a political statement, right?” Hari said, looking at me.

Milo just chuckled. “He hasn’t got a clue, but I think it’ll work out better that way.”

Hari just shrugged and went up to the statue, grasping it under the wings. With a bit of difficulty, he began to carry it.

“What did you make this out of? It’s heavier than expected,” Hari said as he walked.

“Oh, a similar stone compound to the one below Grey Rock. It was an excellent test, and Trev wanted something that would last,” Milo said, clearly happy with his experiments.

It took effort for Hari to get it out the doorway we’d made, having to poke a wing out first, then turn it to ensure he didn’t break the tail or the other wing. The statue also caused several of the workers to stop what they were doing with a gasp.

As we came around the front, we caught several guards by surprise as well, but they rushed to open the doors wide as Hari carried it up the stairs.

Again, it barely fit, but once we entered the hall, many eyes fell on us. Liane was sitting on the stairs with Jen, and several staff were currently working.

“That’s a nice statue, Trev,” Liane said with a grin.

Jen looked more confused than anything else.

I was happy to leave it just on the floor, but Milo had other ideas. He approached the centre of the room, and a large circular plinth formed, rising to about my knees.

Finally, Hari moved it onto the plinth. I watched Milo secure it to the base, then stand back to admire his handiwork.

“It looks perfect!” I said excitedly.

It was only now that I noticed in Sylverith’s mouth was a copy of the seed she’d taken with her, which was perfect. If it was such a legendary treasure, then why not immortalise that moment?

“Thanks so much!” I exclaimed, circling around it, admiring it as it sat on its plinth.

Everyone else had come over to admire it now as well, with several staff staring from the balcony above, trying not to be too obvious.

“Crisplet made this?” Jen asked.

“Yeah! It’s amazing, right? He’s doing one of Lily right now to put in the front garden,” I said excitedly.

“How did you get it here? You were in the kitchen,” Liane asked.

“We had to make a hole in the wall. It wouldn’t fit through the doors,” I said, scratching the back of my head.

Jen just laughed.

Archie appeared through the side door, his eyes going wide, but he didn’t say anything—just started shooing all the loitering staff back to their jobs.

“Well, call me when you need the other one moved. Hopefully, I’ll still have the buffs. Another two and a half hours to go, and I’ll move it for you. Might want to seal up the kitchen, though, before a worker wanders in and meets Lily face to face,” Hari said, heading back out to the training yard.

Hearing Milo swear under his breath, he rushed off towards the kitchen.

“I’ll go train as well, but grab me when the next one is ready. I want to see it,” Jen said, following Hari.

Liane joined me as I made my way back to the kitchen. I didn’t want to do any more cooking tonight, but I was going to enjoy watching Crisplet build the statue and, importantly, watching Lily try to correct all of Crisplet’s… artistic freedoms.

***

It took several hours for Crisplet to finish the current statue, which ended up being both cute and terrifying—although I’m sure Lily didn’t agree with the cute part. She was lying on the ground, head held high, almost as if she were looking at something.

What really stood out were the teeth and claws, though. They made it look genuinely terrifying.

Unfortunately, Hari’s buffs had worn off, and we were at a loss for how to move it. He could lift it, but barely, and it would have been incredibly difficult to carry it outside.

When Hari put it down, Lily walked over and did a lap around it, inspecting it. Then she pushed everyone back, and a moment later Lily and the statue vanished into the floor.

“Did you know she could do that?” Milo asked.

I just shook my head. “Would’ve been nice with the dragon earlier…” I muttered.

“We’d better go find her,” Jen suggested.

Liane chuckled. “I can feel her. She’s right out the front.”

We all hurried to the front door, and the sight before us was… well, hilarious. Lily was clearly trying to find the best place to put the statue, so she was shifting it around constantly. I could only imagine how much mana she was burning moving it.

I walked to the centre. There were flowers there currently, but it was what you saw as you came up the path from the entrance, and you’d also see it from the front door. It was surrounded by plants.

“Lily, I think here. We’ll have Milo make you a plinth as well,” I said, catching her attention.

I stepped back to allow Milo to form the plinth, which lifted it just above the flowers. We ruined a bunch of plants making it, but when it was done, one last move by Lily and the statue was on the plinth.

However, it was facing the wrong direction.

“Hari, could you turn this to face the pa—” I started to say, but Lily stopped me.

A paw rested gently on my arm, and she looked up. The statue was facing the same direction she was—directly at the full moon rising in the sky.

“Ah, I see now. This works for me!” I said happily. You’d still see it when you came up the path; it just would be a side profile instead of straight-on.

“Thanks for the help,” I said to everyone. I was exhausted.

And tomorrow I’d get to go shopping, so it was time to sleep.

I spotted Liane talking to Crisplet off to the side, and I had to wonder what she was up to.