Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

It was horrible. My head was sore, my body was aching as I dragged myself up the stairs towards my room. For hours, Milo and Hari went over how to talk, act, and eat, and I felt overwhelmed.

Crisplet even left halfway through to practice a statue in the kitchen.

The one thing that stood out to me more than anything else was a comment made by Milo.

“Trevor, by this stage, everyone will know that the easiest way to get you to let your guard down is by discussing food and ingredients. No matter what you’re promised, you need to refuse until we can talk about it later.”

I wasn’t worried about how people found this out. I felt it was pretty obvious if anyone saw me go to the market, worked out where Micca’s food was coming from, or even connected the dots that Reginald started making regular deliveries shortly after our meeting.

None of that bothered me.

What bothered me was the thought that someone might offer me rare or legendary ingredients and I had to say no, even if it’s a gift, because apparently there would be expectations and strings attached.

Well, surely if they offered me legendary items, I could have them visit the house or something and speak with Milo and Hari? Right?

Falling onto the bed, I felt exhausted. I barely even shifted as the large form of Lily took up most of the bed, what small amount of mana I had left slowly draining away.

“Where have you been hiding, anyway?” I asked.

I never got an answer before I passed out.

***

The next morning, as I woke up, my body felt stiff. There was a dull ache in my joints, and during the night I had been pushed right to the edge of the bed as Lily took up the rest of it, impressively spreading out and twisting in ways I didn’t even think were possible.

Getting up to stretch, I gave Lily a nudge, surprised I could actually touch her and not just pass through.

“Lily, just letting you know the dinner is tomorrow, if you want to be around for that.”

Lily opened one eye, looking at me before letting out what I swear was a sigh, before rolling over and going back to sleep.

Entering the dining room, Milo was sitting there, waiting for me, already working on his runes. We had agreed today that we’d dedicate it to getting as much practice as possible.

Today I had two goals. The first was to get some more practice, and for whatever reason Archie said he was unable to find more melons, instead getting me a selection of much smaller fruits that I could still carve into, so I would make do.

The second goal was to create a stone box with the help of Milo that would hold food, carving a rune onto that to ensure that I could age it like that.

It was about an hour into the day that I used my first mana candy. I had some successes, but I wasn’t getting it every time. The smaller, less uniform shape of the fruit was posing some issues.

To distract myself from the last apple that had exploded in my hands, I decided to ask a question that had been burning at me for a while now.

“Milo, how are you able to make runes without the skill for it?”

“That’s rather tricky to answer, and it relies on understanding the mage class itself better, as generally speaking, once you’re able to control your mana and work it, the mage class is able to work more forms of magic without the skill. However, it will never be as good or as easy as someone with the skill,” he explained.

“Why doesn’t every mage just enchant their own belongings, then?” I asked.

Surely if it was so easy, then every mage could spend a couple of weeks learning the sharpness enchant or something and make a fortune.

Milo just laughed. “Time, Trev. It all comes down to time. You’ve found success with that rune fairly quickly. That’s largely in part due to your skill assisting you. However, myself, I’ll probably still be working on this in a month or two, maybe longer.”

“So I could learn to do magic that’s not related to my class?” I asked hopefully.

I dreamed of making the stone structures that Milo did, for tools or containers, plates. It was so useful!

“Probably not, no.” There was a pause while Milo seemed to be in thought. “Possibly. So, when a mage gets their first class, everything is very vague. I mentioned you get basic conjuration, and you start from there. What you study and use is where your class evolves, and the skills gain influence from that.”

I nodded along, still not letting the dream die yet.

“So, if you were to dedicate yourself to something such as runescribing here, as a mage you might get a skill that would help with imbues. You’ll never be as focused as a runescribe class, like you won’t, either,” he continued.

“So you’re hoping to be offered a dragon-based skill by spending your time learning this,” I concluded.

“Exactly,” Milo beamed.

The conversation went quiet for a couple of hours as we both continued to work. I was getting more successes than failures now. Archie came in to clear away the growing pile of rotten fruit as well.

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Getting the time exact was going to be very difficult. I had a rune that I believed was only four days, the problem was, I couldn’t really tell much difference to the lemon in such a short amount of time. I swear I noticed a slight change in the skin, though.

I also had two weeks, a month, and a decade for now, anyway.

“Is the trip up north dangerous?” I asked.

Milo shrugged. “Not normally. It really depends on the route, though. Usually, the closer you are to the forest, the more dangerous it gets.”

“Do you know which way we’ll be going?”

“No. It really depends on the caravan we’re escorting. Some have certain villages and towns they like to pass on the way. It could be up the coast, or it could be inland,” Milo explained.

“I hope we go past the forest,” I mumbled.

“You just want to go foraging, but I would say there is also likely to be a lot of foraging to do along the coast as well,” Milo chuckled.

Having used a lot of the fruit now, I felt like it was time to carve into a stone box, so getting Milo to make me one, I was both thankful and terrified at the new knife. It felt like a single slip could leave me without a finger.

So slowly, I got to work.

The knife moved through the stone as if it were soft clay. The first seven lids I cracked in half by pushing the knife too hard and piercing the stone itself. The following set was all ruined by inconsistent depths. Controlling the sharp knife was so much harder. It felt like I was starting from scratch all over again.

“This is frustrating,” I groaned as yet another stone lid snapped in half.

“Patience, Trev. Keep your hand steady. Move slowly and with purpose. You’re getting halfway, then rushing,” Milo said.

I felt a warmth hit my back as Crisplet pushed across the feeling of reassurance and pride.

I took a deep breath, pulled up the next piece of stone, and tried, then failed again.

Despite the knife cutting through the stone so easily, it felt like some parts were ever so slightly harder than others, and once that part ended, my knife would jump forward, only a little bit, but enough to dig too deep or cause it to crack.

Sylverith joined us at the table, watching over our work.

“Milo, dear, you’re doing quite well. Far better than I would have expected from a human mage,” she commented.

Moving next to me, she watched as I attempted again to carve into the stone, the blade gliding through the stone until I had to curve it around, and again it cracked to the edge.

“Trevor, dear, you remember what I showed you with the knife, don’t you? You’d probably find more success if you reshaped your blade,” she said.

“I thought it had to be a kitchen knife?” I asked, feeling stupid.

She just smiled. “It needs to be a knife, but there is nothing stopping you from making it better for your task at hand.”

Pressing my finger on the rune, I shifted the blade, making it almost rounded, with a sharp tip, as if it were a small blade on the end of a rod.

After several more attempts, I finally had my first successful completion of the rune on stone.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, reaching down and pushing my mana into the rune.

Nothing happened. It didn’t break or glow. Nothing at all.

Looking up at Sylverith, she looked confused as well, but one look at Milo told me he knew something.

“Trev, that’s only the lid. There is nothing food-related about a stone lid.”

Feeling embarrassed, I pulled over the box, placed two lemons inside, put the lid on top, and tried to activate the rune for a second time.

It glowed, and I thought I had succeeded. Then the box shattered.

“It was a good attempt, Trevor. I’d have been very surprised if it worked on your first attempt,” Sylverith patted me on the shoulder.

“Keep trying, and you’ll get it,” Milo encouraged.

Another hour had passed, and I had so far had four more attempts to make it to activation. One of those exploded violently.

But on attempt six, I squinted as I pushed my mana into the rune. It glowed before subsiding, and the smell of rotten lemons assaulted my nostrils.

Removing the lid, I don’t think I’d ever been so happy to see rotten fruit.

“It worked!” I yelled, jumping up from my seat.

I got a giant burst of sparks from Crisplet, who was just pushing across happiness and pride.

Sylverith was still seated with a book in hand, a small smile on her face.

“Now you have to do it again,” Milo said with a grin.

I didn’t know how long I spent practising, still not getting a success every time, but it was happening far more often than not. I felt maybe it was worth trying it on the bacon.

The confidence to do so only came from the fact that every single time the stone exploded or cracked, the food inside the box remained untouched.

“Think I should give the bacon a go?” I asked curiously.

Both of them said no at exactly the same time.

“Trev, get some bellies and do practice runs. You only have one titan boar and one drake. You don’t want to waste them,” Milo said, shaking his head.

With a sigh, I searched my pantry and looked for any boar bellies I had. Finding three, I followed everything the same as the big ones. Milo made the containers. I filled the bottom with salt, using a different salt for each belly. There was no reason I shouldn’t run an experiment, right?

Laying the belly on a bed of salt, I added more on top before Milo sealed them all in, with small holes to let any liquid drain out easily.

I began carving, taking extra care to make sure they were perfect, imagining a two-week journey, which was on the far end of what I wanted to cure these for, but it should be fine. It was one I had done many times.

Not wasting any time, I activated the rune as soon as I was done, happy to see it didn’t explode or crack. There was no liquid that leaked out, either. Looking at Milo, I couldn’t help but feel a smile growing on my face.

I could smell a soft, smoky scent, which gave me a lot of hope.

We soon opened it up, and there had absolutely been a change.

The belly was now firm. The smoke in this salt had clearly permeated the meat and was unmistakable. Rushing into the kitchen with it, I rinsed off the excess salt and dried it with a cloth before returning to the dining room with the others.

There was really only one test left to do. I pulled out my old knife and cut it in half to make sure it was firm all the way through and that the curing had penetrated the entire cut of meat.

It was a little firmer than the previous ones I had done, but it was cured all the way through. The smoky smell was rich and unmistakable.

Storing it, I turned my attention to the next two, one of which had fire salt, and the final one, which had a herbal taste to it. I wasn’t sure how that one would work out, but without experiments I’d never know.

I carefully carved the runes into the next two containers, again going with two weeks, pushing my mana into them.

Both turned out successfully cured, though the herb one had an odd smell to it, which I believe came from the salt, so I would need to test that when I cooked it.

But I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

“I can try one of the big ones now, right?” I asked Milo and Sylverith.

“If you’re confident, let’s do it,” Milo said.