Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Gilain sat on the ground, tall, imposing trees surrounding him on all sides as their canopy provided shade from the harsh sun above, only the sound of rustling leaves as company. These meditation locations had been meticulously grown over centuries.

However, it wasn’t to be peaceful today, as a servant appeared in his peripheral vision.

“Sorry to disturb you, sir. The council has requested your presence as a matter of urgency.”

Standing and putting on a robe, his sword on his back, Gilain didn’t bother questioning. It was never worth it to question the old fools. They always got their way in the end.

As he entered the hall, approaching the centre of the room that was surrounded by the council, Gilain was surprised to see the seats were actually full for once. The entire council had shown up.

“You summoned me?” he spoke.

All eyes looked down on him as the head of the council rose from his chair, an ancient being with only a few wisps of hair left on his head, as he cleared his throat.

“Gilain Red-Blade, you are called here today to do a service for your people. We require you to travel to the kingdom of Ashivar and kill a boy named Trevor, who resides in the capital,” the man said.

Gilain spat at the ground. “I will not be used to kill a child.”

There was murmuring and outrage from the other old fools sitting in the hall.

“You must. By the oath you took to protect this kingdom, it must be done,” the leader said.

Gilain glared at him. “How has a child, a boy as you said, threatened our kingdom from another continent? My oath is to protect the people here in this kingdom. I am not your tool for assassinations, and especially not for children.”

There were mutterings, clear as day, people claiming traitor and weak. Gilain felt his blood boil. These muttering old fools had never left their luxury and comforts a day in their life, yet they made these claims.

“The boy controls a dragon as well as other equally powerful creatures, and has killed our first warrior we sent. If we do not act, he will turn those beasts on us and bring death and destruction,” the leader said, a tremble in his voice.

Gilain coldly laughed. “So you sent someone else to assassinate a child, and they failed. Now you’re worried about retribution. So it is you who have threatened our people. It is your failure that has drawn the ire of the dragons to us, creatures we have lived at peace with for a millennium.”

“How dare you!” the leader roared.

“I serve the people of this land. I do not serve you!” Gilain shouted back.

“We speak for the people,” a voice from the side came.

Gilain glared at the man.

“Silence!” the leader yelled. “If you will not follow our orders, then I will assign you to be the ambassador to the Ashivar Kingdom, under my powers as the head of the Thelran Conclave, and I’ll remind you of your oath. If you see any threat to our people, you must act.”

The old fool had a smile across his face as if he had won an argument, but there was no force on this earth that would make him kill a child. Why they’d even send a warrior of his power there to begin with was a joke.

“As you wish,” Gilain growled as he bowed.

***

These were strange times. Never did Clifford believe that he’d meet a fire elemental who shared his hobby, but the statues it — no, he — produced were incredible!

His companion, however, terrified him. Lord Ashmoon. How did a child go from orphan to lord so quickly? What sort of beast was that man? And the rumours that surrounded him made him out to be ruthless. After all, he had an argument with House Valrith in the marketplace, and then only weeks later, the entire alchemy guild had been disbanded and the Valrith name removed.

Then there was the dinner. That food. An actual dragon staying at his house! Then there were his other guests. His wife still had the occasional nightmare after feeling the presence of that cat, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Who was he to be hosting the prince of the nation so casually?

And as if to add a frost cherry on top of the fever dream he’d experienced, the prince, at Lord Ashmoon’s request, hired him on the spot to create a statue in the courtyard at the palace.

At the palace! Where he was travelling right this moment to meet Crisplet, who was already there to start building. He didn’t even know how this was going to work. Crisplet worked with fire. How could he possibly help?

As the carriage came to a halt and the door was opened, Clifford was not sure what he was walking into, but after a moment’s hesitation, dropped to a knee, bowing his head.

Internally, he was screaming. The king was here. Why was the king here? And with the dragon and Crisplet, there was a powerful presence coming from both Sylverith and the King, causing him to sweat.

“Cut that out. Come over here. It’s Clifford, right?” the King said with a giant smile on his face.

“Ye… yes, Your Majesty,” Clifford stammered out, getting to his feet.

He had to wonder, did the King even realise that Sylverith was a dragon? Surely he would, but how could he be so calm?

“Now, I will leave the design up to you, but by what Sylverith has said, Crisplet has some ideas for a phoenix statue here, but he wouldn’t decide on anything until you arrived,” the King beamed.

Crisplet let off a burst of sparks.

“It would be an honour,” Clifford bowed.

“Now, now, cut that out,” the King waved him off.

Sylverith, who had been just smiling next to him, spoke, her voice going directly to his mind. “Hello, dear. I’m here to help communication with young Crisplet. Trevor was worried you might struggle.”

“Than… thank you, Lady Sylverith,” he bowed again.

She chuckled, saying, “I am no lady. Please do just call me Sylverith, or Protector of the Dark Forest, but usually people find Sylverith easier.”

There was a single spark from Crisplet, causing a giant smile to come across the dragon’s face. “No, dear. You’re fine to keep calling me Aunt Sylvy.”

Crisplet appeared before him, where he formed several figures out of flowing ash, all appearing to be different versions of the phoenix, from its full bird-like form to its humanoid form with feathers where skin should be.

“These are all ideas that he has for the statue, and he wants your help to pick,” Sylverith said.

The King nodded to the side. Why was he deciding? Surely it’s the King’s statue. It should be the King who decides, right?

With a gulp, and all eyes on him, he went up to inspect the three figures, and ultimately, thinking the full bird form was best since, like most, he didn’t even know she had a humanoid form at all. But he instantly started to second-guess himself. Perhaps showing some of the human side would be good, then?

This text was taken from NovelFire. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Ultimately picking the middle figure, which was half human with giant burning wings where the arms should have been and clawed feet, looking more like a burning harpy in this small form, he knew that wouldn’t be the end result.

“Perfect! I will leave you all to it. Here is your initial payment; the rest will be paid on completion,” the King happily said, throwing two large bags of coins that Clifford caught, only glimpsing the inside for a moment and realising it was full of gold coins…

Gold coins.

***

Marcus sat in his study, going over all his notes and messages.

He’d made a giant blunder, allowing corruption not just to damage his kingdom, but for it to take such deep root. He knew that fell on his shoulders, that corruption like that only happens when the leader allows it to.

All the events that had happened in the last month had been an eye-opening experience, and he was shocked that the people were not calling for his removal. He wouldn’t have even blamed them if they did.

But he had a chance now, a chance to set everything back on track and to show the people he was a leader worth following. He’d been too lax for too long, purely trusting his advisers and never questioning what he was told, never leaving the safety of the capital. Sylverith alluded to there being more corruption, and that she only dealt with the individuals who were directly targeting Trevor.

That meant there were still others, but just who could Marcus trust?

“Liam, could you please gather my children and wife?” Marcus called to his most trusted guard.

Bowing, Liam left the room immediately.

Soon, everyone was standing in the room, looks of confusion on their faces.

“Liam, please stay as well,” Marcus said before he could leave the room.

“Thank you all for coming. I have failed in my duties and allowed the corruption to nearly break our kingdom. With how deep it’s gone, I feel the need to go back to those I trust the most. Only from there can we fix this,” Marcus began.

Elijah and Luis looked confused. They had never enjoyed the responsibility of the throne, but today they’d need to step up.

“First, we need to see our kingdom firsthand and make our judgements ourselves, so I am going to be asking you all to go on a journey. Liam, I will require a small group of your best men to accompany my family without drawing too much attention. Kathrine, I will ask you to go west. Make your way to Boltron and find out what you can,” Marcus began.

Kathrine nodded.

“Luis, you will head north. I will require you to find as much information as you can. Speak with the common folk, hear their complaints, and report back what you find. Blend in.”

Luis smiled, surprising Marcus. If anyone was going to complain, he was sure it was Luis.

“I can do that. I heard that Trevor and his party will head north. Perhaps I’ll cross their path.” Luis asked.

Marcus but nodded; he doubted Trevor would invite Luis, but they had been getting along recently.

“Elijah, you will head southwest toward Greyrock, and Amber, my dear, if you could remain here and run the day to day,” Marcus said with a smile.

“Where will you be heading?” Luis asked bluntly.

“The demonic frontline. We leave when the snow melts, so prepare well,” Marcus said.

***

For the second time that day, a blasted adventurer had slapped down a monster belly on Dorn’s counter, splattering blood and muck over his papers.

“Watch it. Cleaning fees will be taken out of your reward,” Dorn growled.

The guild had been in chaos for weeks now. The influx of random jobs had been almost too much to handle, causing Dorn far more stress than he’d like to admit. Daily he was handling crates full of lemon tea grass after an endless job was submitted for it. He even knew some adventurers were hanging up their swords and picking up farming due to the ease and the promise that the job would be long-lasting.

This had shaken everything up. Now the latest jobs to show up were monster bellies and any ingredient that was fire-related, all paying far more than normal.

The slight problem with it all, though, was that no one was taking the regular eradication or escort jobs. Why would they spend a month travelling for five silver when they could pick twenty bundles of lemon tea grass instead?

Something would have to change, and soon.

Another belly slapped down on his counter.

“Right! That’s it. One silver cleaning fee off your reward,” Dorn yelled, catching the adventurer team off guard.

“Dorn, take a break,” a calm voice called from the side.

Dorn let out a sigh of frustration but didn’t say no to the guild master.

“Ma’am, we need signs telling adventurers to stop throwing monster body parts on the counter. This can’t go on,” Dorn said as he approached.

“We’re working on it, Dorn. Just hold it together a bit longer. It will settle down,” she said calmly.

***

Lily had been searching this horrible city for anyone responsible for the attack on her human. It was a pathetic attempt, but it exposed a weakness, one that she should have seen coming, and one she wouldn’t make the mistake with again.

Sylverith assured her none of the humans in that room were responsible, though she was sure killing them all would be the safest and best response.

Sylverith told her no.

She had also not given up her hunt to fix her human. The silly firebird couldn’t help, and she considered tracking down this mage who kept appearing and demanding answers from him, until Sylverith had told her to be cautious of him and to avoid contact unless her human was involved.

This only left a few options. She knew of some undead creatures on a far-away continent who never died. They kept their life force hidden, but she didn’t think Trevor would like that, so that left turning to the dryads, who she had always got along with, or finding out how the leviathan keeps regenerating, or her least liked options, speaking to the gods themselves, but they were greedy and wanted something in return. They’d probably take her food. No, that wouldn’t do.

The newest food creation had given her an urgency. It was too important to lose. Bacon was amazing, and she could always get more just by bringing her human the bellies of creatures.

Soon they’d get to leave this pit of vipers they’d been staying in, and she could head out again, find a proper solution, especially now that the scarf allowed her to travel back.

This gave her an idea, though. Maybe a solution to fix her human? Could Sylverith freeze time around him? Keep him young? Or maybe just reincarnate him every time he died?

This was all too much to worry about right now. She needed a snack, then a nap.

***

Throughout the years, Toby had worked on some strange pieces, but two items sat well above the rest. First was when the companion of the newest noble arrived in his shop, wanting a piece of clothing made out of her own fur, no less.

Toby had never in his entire life seen shadow cat fur. In fact, he was sure that he was the first tailor to ever work with it, especially when he gained four levels making the item that ended up being legendary, and the only request was it had to come low enough down the chest to hide an unsightly blemish.

He’d not even gained four levels in the last five years.

Yet this single scarf had been such a boost. Now today, he was startled to find the cat was back, with the one they claimed was a dragon, no less, sitting inside the shop before he’d even opened for the day, waiting.

“Hello, dear. We’ve come to make a request,” the lady said with a smile.

Nodding, still waking up for the day, but the idea that a couple more levels might be just around the corner, Toby put on his best smile. “Of course. Anything. What do you require?”

“You’re right to think this could be good for your class,” the lady said before looking down.

Toby stood stunned for a moment. She can read his thoughts. Don’t panic.

“We require gloves and some pants,” the lady said.

Toby nodded. “That’s easy enough. What sort are you after? We have a fine selection of materials.”

“No, dear. We’ll provide you with the materials. The piece will be made from dragon hide. I want it reinforced with small shards of dragon scale but still allow full movement, then both need to be lined with shadow cat fur,” she instructed.

The stunned look on Toby’s face never left. This would be two more legendary pieces.

“This is doable, right?” she asked.

“Of… of course. I can get started right away if I have the materials. Do you have the sizes?” Toby stammered, dreaming of the levels he was about to get from this.

Working with dragon leather, scales, and shadow cat fur. If his old master could see him now! He thought he’d peaked, getting to the role of royal tailor and hitting level one hundred in his class. How wrong he was.

“Yes, dear, and please make sure some fur is visible on the outside of both pieces,” she smiled as she pulled out some vibrant blue scales, what looked to be uncured hide, and four balls of fur.

“I’m sorry to be a bother, but we’ll need to cure the hide before I can work with it,” Toby bowed, sad this would add a couple of weeks to the process.

“My apologies, dear. Let me fix that.”

Toby watched in awe as a claw appeared from her finger as she scratched something into the raw hide, and before his eyes, he watched it dry, almost as if it were curing in seconds.

It was curing in seconds.

Incredible.

“Let’s get started, then, shall we, dear?” the lady smiled.