Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

When lunch was finished, I collected Clacks, who had decided to go to sleep on Huling’s shoulder, much to Huling’s disappointment.

Milo had gone straight back to his studies, clearly not wanting to miss the opportunity with Sylverith, which made sense considering he had an evolution quest related to draconic runes and spells. In particular, if my memory was correct, he needed to learn three.

I was excited to see what he’d get, but I don’t think anyone was as excited by this as Milo himself.

Entering the kitchen, Lily was still asleep on the floor and there was a single bite taken from her plate of food, half-eaten.

Crisplet was currently sculpting something which I had to hold back a laugh, because it was Lily, but she was very round compared to normal.

“She won’t like that one, Crisplet,” I said, a small laugh coming out.

All I got in return was a burst of sparks and the strong feeling of joy.

I just shook my head and approached the plate of food on the floor. I figured I should store it away for now and she can eat the rest later.

Reaching down, “I’m just going to store it so you can eat it later,” I said.

Without even opening her eyes, a paw slowly shifted with the edge of it ever so slightly sitting on the plate, stopping me.

Again, I laughed, “Fine, but pancakes go stale if you leave them out!”

I walked to Clacks’ nest where I carefully put her inside, getting a soft chirp before she shuffled back to where she had her leaf, sleeping on top of it.

I was surprised it looked as green as the moment it dropped, having lost none of its lustre.

Turning my attention back to the tasks in the kitchen, I managed to finish the stock that Clacks helped me prepare and I decided to infuse it. On a whim, I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw.

[Uncommon] Essence Infused Buvul Stock

+2 Strength.

Minor Water Magic Potency.

Major Fire Resistance.

This was a curious thing for several reasons, the main one being that Clacks actually managed to infuse her water essence into the stock.

Next was the fact it was potent enough to compete with Crisplet’s fire immunity, knocking that down to fire resistance, while still maintaining a potency.

Looking at Crisplet, “We need to get Clacks involved in cooking more; her potency came through on this one.”

Crisplet let off a big burst of sparks and expressed joy.

“I’m sorry about the mana control too; I promise I’ll work on it more,” I said.

I felt bad about it, but I was also glad to hear that Crisplet wanted to improve his communication with me, so I’d make a point to work on it as much as possible.

I pushed back the feeling of pride to Crisplet, who seemed to agree.

I stored that particular stock; I didn’t want to waste it on a soup I was going to be providing the temple. I also had plenty of bones; I just got more in the oven with Crisplet and the overweight Lily statue.

I felt the stock cubes that Gilain instructed me on were solid enough now to come out of the pot also, which happened surprisingly easily. The next task was to cut them into small cubes and then lay them out individually on a tray to continue to dry even more.

I also decided to cook the rest of the beetles for Clacks in exactly the same way. I didn’t use the same liquid, however, because it just felt too salty, so I recreated it only using a fraction of the salt I used before.

Moving on from that, I wanted to start tackling the supplies for Micca. I didn’t know what the rest of the week had in store for me with Lukas, so I didn’t waste any time.

In this particular kitchen, I had no real way to smoke any bacon, so the spikeback bacon would have to wait a while longer, but what I could do was more lollies. I have plenty of alchemy ingredients, and I wanted some mana restoration lollies for myself.

So I spent the rest of the afternoon working on that.

At some point, Liane had made her way in, but she didn’t disturb me, not even to try the lolly.

The same couldn’t be said for Lily, though; she appeared to yawn and eat the remaining food on her plate in the same motion before she fell back to sleep for the afternoon.

I didn’t even realise so much time had passed. I was distracted by the ongoing lollies and the sausage mixture I was working on when Clacks woke up, coming to the edge of the nest in a panic.

She frantically looked around, seemingly spotting what she was looking for before hopping and flapping her wings towards the pot that still held the new stock.

As soon as I realised what was happening, I spoke up, “Clacks, it’s alright, yours is ready. I have it stored; you did amazing!”

I pulled it out and carried it over to the counter she was hopping along, lifting her up to the edge so she could see.

“It’s all finished, and I infused it,” I explained.

An indirect source note: the author publishes this chapter on the official page, while this version was copied without approval.

She seemed to hop along the edge of the pot, inspecting it.

“It has a minor water magic potency, but it could probably be stronger. It seems to clash with your brother Crisplet’s fire immunity,” I explained.

She let out a series of chirps, and from the side, I felt Crisplet send across what was the undeniable feeling of ‘taste’.

“Oh, sure,” I said.

I pulled out a tiny bowl and filled it up a little, moving it and Clacks back down to the counter.

She appeared to inspect it closely, even circling around it. Then, looking up at me, she gave me two more chirps.

Crisplet was quick to fill in this one too: ‘Food’.

I obliged and pulled out three of the small whitebait I had cooked off earlier and set aside.

I couldn’t help but hear Liane giggling at the situation in the corner.

This was important though! This was Clacks’ first time actually cooking.

I was surprised when Clacks threw all three fish into the small bowl, letting it soak for a short time, before she looked up at me again, not eating.

I looked to Crisplet, but he just sent me confusion, then a flurry of things I couldn’t really understand.

“She probably wants you to infuse it, Trev,” Liane said.

This earned several chirps and a burst of sparks from Crisplet.

I wasn’t sure if this would work. I had not technically cooked this as a dish, but the stock was still hot, and technically the whitebait had only been out of the pan momentarily before it was stored.

Shrugging, I infused the dish.

I quickly checked the buffs to see what it would become.

[Uncommon] River and Range Soup

+3 Strength.+2 Charisma.Moderate Water Potency.Minor Fire Resistance.“You made a whole new soup!” I said.

Clacks was clearly happy with this, as she flapped her wings.

I read off all the buffs for her, earning a whistle from Liane behind me.

Even Crisplet was pushing across a strong feeling of pride.

Clacks looked up at me. I just gestured, “You made it, it’s safe and it’s all yours, enjoy your soup.”

Part of me was honestly worried about trying it; it didn’t look overly appetising. The whitebait being pan-cooked in flour just turned the stock cloudy, and I imagine if there were enough of them you might even thicken the soup.

Buvul stock usually was very meaty, and I didn’t really know how the meat and fish combination would work.

Clacks, however, seemed to love it.

I noted the lesson from earlier was still fresh in her mind though, as she was very clean with it despite the bursts of wing flaps.

I even noticed a couple of times where it looked like she was hovering above the bowl edge.

She really would be flying soon.

I stored away the sausage mix and looked around properly.

“What time is it?” I asked Liane.

She shrugged, “Fairly late in the evening at this point; you’ve been going for a long while.”

I had a moment of panic. I hadn’t made anything for dinner, and I knew Jamal wouldn’t want me in his kitchen.

Liane, noticing the panic, just smiled, “Believe it or not, we’re capable of feeding ourselves some nights, especially in a town like this. You do remember me telling you about the restaurants, right?”

“But you didn’t leave the kitchen,” I countered.

She nodded, “It’s true, but I won’t starve, don’t worry yourself.”

I felt bad, but I pulled out some jerky along with some of the bacon I’d prepared earlier. I didn’t want to waste it all, so only two pieces of each, just enough for one each.

“Thanks, Trev,” she said happily.

Taking a bite of the bacon first, I noticed Lily opened an eye, but before she could say anything, another two pieces of bacon were out and handed to her.

“You forget that we survived largely on stuff like this for weeks when you weren’t part of the group. We’d hunt, of course, but we don’t have the storage space to keep a large amount of meat,” she said.

Eating the jerky, I looked over everything I had prepared today: two soups for the temple using the second stock, one which I had strained, and the other was just a regular chicken and corn soup with some virfolium and blood owl beak powder, to give it a regeneration buff.

I got a batch of regeneration candy and mana candy done, both with moderate regeneration, and I had prepared the meat for a baelvyrn sausage wheel.

“Something you could look into while we’re here, Trev, is cheese,” Liane suggested.

“Cheese?”

She nodded. “Yeah, you take the cream of buvul, then add a tiny bit of rennet, which is a liquid that some places sell. Not sure exactly what it’s from, but I’m sure we can find a book on it. It looks simple.”

I doubted it was as simple as she suggested, but it would be something I was interested in.

There was a deep growl behind me, and I turned around to see Crisplet showing Lily the round version of herself.

Crisplet didn’t seem to mind the growl as I just felt the emotions of fun and joy, as he let off a burst of sparks.

The statue turned to dust as Lily sank into the ground, clearly not impressed.

“It was a good joke, Crisplet,” I said quietly.

I started to pack everything up, noticing Clacks had finished her food.

“Was it good?” I asked.

I got lots of chirps as she hopped and seemed to float momentarily, before she made her way back to the nest.

“We’ll save that stock for something special that we can all have, alright?” I said.

A single chirp from the nest.

Hoping that was a ‘yes’; I hadn’t quite worked out a system with Clacks like I had for Crisplet yet.

Once everything was packed up, I picked up Clacks, poking my head out the kitchen to see what was happening in the main room.

I was surprised to see Gilain, Jamal, and Hari all sitting around a giant barrel.

Liane, who had come up behind me, said, “He learned nothing from yesterday.”

I could hear disappointment in her voice but had to smile; this was the first time I’d seen Hari really just letting go.

In the corner sat Milo alone, at a table covered in books, as a stack of papers sat next to him.

Jen and Luis were sitting at a table together, but I couldn’t see Sylverith or Huling. She did say she was leaving, but I expected her to say goodbye. I also didn’t realise Huling was going as well.

Jen waved us over. I wasn’t going to stay long, being tired again.

Liane, however, took the seat next to Luis.

“Sylverith didn’t want to disturb you; she said you were concentrating, but to pass on that she’ll be back within a week,” Jen said.

“Did Huling go as well?” I asked.

Jen looked around, almost confused.

“No, she didn’t. She was still here recently, I think,” Jen said.

Letting out a sigh. I had a really good idea where I’d find her, as if Lily wasn’t bad enough.

“I’m going to go to sleep. I want to visit the temple early tomorrow, then go to the market myself,” I said happily.

Jen smiled, “Perfect, we’re not planning on having a late one, so we’ll be awake if you want company.”

After saying my goodnight, I went upstairs with Crisplet and Clacks. I don’t even think Hari or Gilain noticed us as we went by.

Once I made it to my room, my belief was confirmed.

On my bed was Lily stretched diagonally across it, and ‘sleeping’ in the bottom corner was a pure white fox, her bushy tail covering her face.

I was sure she was still awake, but I wasn’t going to win this battle.