Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Heading into the kitchen, I took stock of the carcasses I had and how I was best going to butcher them in order to complete eleven more today.

The first thing I did was pull out one of the bark vipers. It would be good practice for the two miremaw's that I had. I would also do the three blood owls and two wind hawks; they were fairly simple to prepare.

That cleared up most of the ten with fairly easy-to-butcher carcasses; however, the last three were more concerning. I had two more baelvryn, which were considerably larger than the wolves, and I was sure it would take me several hours to break them down.

I had one thunar that had not been prepared yet and which I could also use, and the last Uncommon ones I had were a single chironid—which I had prepared before and struggled with, but it was possible—and two grarok.

These I had never seen before storing them, when Lily provided them, but they appeared to walk on all four legs, with thick, harsh black fur covering them that almost felt like bristles on a worn stick broom. Then the body itself—it just felt hard, like it was all muscle, with claws that rivalled even the Baelvryn. At first appearance they looked easy, like a strange chunky wolf, but something told me, with how they felt like a rock, it wouldn't be so simple.

With a large sigh, I got to work.

***

I was right in my assessment that the birds and the snakes would be easy; they were all done without issue. I did run into problems when I did the thunar, however, as I received no credit or butchery experience after I was done, and I suspect it was due to the fin on its back being cut. I didn't notice it before, but now I was frustrated.

"You alright in here?" Liane said, her head poking through the door to the dining room.

I was just storing the thunar away.

"Yeah, fine. Just trying to complete my quests, but someone already cut something off the fish, so I didn't get credit for it," I grumbled.

I wanted to avoid doing the bears if possible; they were by far the largest, so I had a choice between another Chironid—which I knew to be difficult—or the Grarok, which I suspected to be difficult.

Deciding to go with the latter, I pulled it out, and it landed on the counter with a heavy thud. I looked up and saw that Liane had already disappeared, clearly wanting to leave me alone. I made my first cut—

Well, I tried to. I was immediately met with some of the toughest hide I had dealt with, and after putting a lot of pressure and running over the same line several times, I finally made some progress, with a tiny slice across the belly.

I ran into my second problem when, the moment I made it through the hide, the pressure I was putting on the knife caused me to stab deep into the internal organs, puncturing several of them, and quickly the room was filled with a foul smell.

I contemplated switching to the second one and leaving this until I was outside one day, but I decided against it. This was just my punishment for being careless.

It felt like a couple of hours had passed before I was making progress on this one. The flesh was incredibly tough; I wasn't sure how I would even begin to cook this when the time came. It would have to be slow-cooked and broken down—there would be no way this could become a steak or a quick roast. It would be worse than eating Buvul leather!

Looking out the small window, I couldn't help but notice it was already starting to get darker outside. Just how long had I been in here?

Once I felt I was done, I looked down at the remains I had left, and they were a mess. The hide was in many pieces; the meat looked like I had cut it with an axe; and when I checked my quests, I also saw that somehow this one had not counted towards the Uncommon quest, but it had counted towards the fifteen in one day.

I knew I was the only person who had butchered it, so why didn't it count? Is it because it's such a bad job that it's now considered lower in quality?

With a sigh, I stored the remains and pulled out the Chironid. I had done at least one of these before. Shaking off my disappointment, I didn't have time to worry about that—I had a job to do!

I had a lot more success butchering this one, and it was certainly helped by the claw mark that was cutting right down its back, and after trying to cut the Grarok, this one felt as smooth as butter despite my previous experience of this being difficult.

More time passed, and I had the plates stacked in a neat pile, with the skin removed and the parts broken down. I couldn't help but smile when I saw that one counted, and the complete fifteen quest was complete.

But that wouldn't do—I wouldn't check it until both were completed. Now I had to choose between a grarok and a baelvryn. The bear I knew I could do; it would just take a very long time. The grarok was very difficult, but I had recently done one, so surely the second shouldn't be so bad.

Looking around the room, I saw neat piles of all the non-food-related items I had been collecting today—fangs, claws, scales, feathers, plates from the Chironid—but I did a double take when I saw Lily lying on the floor by the fire.

A quick look at the window told me nightfall had already taken place. I had missed training.

I would make it up to them tomorrow!

I pulled out the grarok—I wouldn't let this one defeat me—and got to work.

Halfway through, I was interrupted as Liane once again poked her head in.

"Still at it? Good, good—just letting you know, we have organised dinner for tonight! So don't worry about us."

"Sorr—" I started to say, but she cut me off.

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"Don't you apologise for being in the zone! Get those quests done. We'll save you some food," she said.

I noticed Lily had looked up and was looking between myself and Liane.

"It might be better to go with her if you want something to eat now," I said, shrugging.

"But if not, I'll cook you something once this is all done," I said.

Lily seemed to find that acceptable and went back to sleep. I couldn't help but notice that Liane let out a breath she was holding—was she worried Lily would take her up on the food?

After thanking Liane, I went back to work. So far, this grarok was looking much better than my previous attempt. I didn't pierce the internal organs either, so I removed them cleanly this time.

Another hour passed, and I had the hide completely removed, and I was looking down at a much better-looking grarok than the one earlier.

It wasn't perfect, but I was dreading checking the quest, because if this failed, I would need to complete the bear. So, with a deep breath, I pulled up my status.

Notification:

…

Butcher 10 unique monsters of Uncommon or greater rarity: Complete!

Butcher 15 creatures in a single day: Complete!

Five evolution options are available for Butchery.

Evolution Options Available:

Skill: Butchery → Shoreline Butcher

You make cleaner cuts specifically from fish or aquatic creatures.

Improves the ability to identify and preserve key ingredients, such as poison glands, mana sacs, and oil and ink pockets.

Enhances the meat quality of aquatic creatures you butcher.

Skill: Butchery → Monster Carver

Expertise in mana-enriched creature harvesting; able to identify valuable parts.

Reduces the likelihood of damaging glands and organs.

Enhances the meat quality of mana-enriched creatures.

Skill: Butchery → Rapid Quartermaster

Increased speed when butchering small / mid-sized creatures.

Reduces stamina drain during butchery

Grants your butchered items a temporary freshness buff, allowing you a longer period before decay sets in.

Skill: Butchery → Apex Harvester

Specialisation in large mana-enriched creatures.

Fast and clean removal of heavy materials: scales, horns, plates, fangs, claws, and others.

Allows you to handle large portions while actively butchering.

Skill: Butchery → Ranger's Dissection

Increased speed and cleaner cuts while outdoors.

Environmental influences are stabilised during butchering.

Able to identify usable carcasses from a distance while outdoors.

In my mind, I had a clear winner out of the group, and my options were not unexpected. I couldn't help but laugh at the fish option showing up, but it made sense. Also, the small and mid-sized creatures option made sense to me, but the one that was standing out as the most useful of everything had to be Apex Harvester.

If only to be able to butcher the drake and second half of the dragon tail properly—but also it mentioned all the other parts, like horns, plates, fangs, and claws—so I would find it much easier to remove and salvage the parts with value.

Monster Carver seemed nice, but we were not short on funds, so purely finding value in the carcass didn't rate the highest for me. That sounded like the skill that Clacker demonstrated to us back in Boltron, and I was curious to know the impact of enhancing meat quality—did that affect the actual quality rating? So, would dragon become something higher than Legendary?

I would need to ask Milo.

The three that really didn't interest me were the fish one, the outdoors one, and the Rapid Quartermaster. Of the three, I don't feel any would suit my needs. I hoped I wouldn't be outside in the open for my entire life, so it was pointless picking something that restricted me to that for the skill.

With a sigh, I stretched, noticing the kitchen was in a state now that I was done, and it was very dark outside, with the light coming from the glowing stones on the walls and Crisplet's fire, with Lily still sleeping in front. Around me there were bloodstains and marks, and I couldn't smell it, but I suspected this room would have a potent odour right now.

I suppose I should cook something for Lily and myself—I did promise her, after all.

I wanted to make something simple because I was very tired and my stamina was absolutely on the low side, so I pulled out six of the thunar steaks I had prepared earlier and already sliced up. I had a suspicion it wouldn't just be myself and Lily eating at the end here, so an extra one wouldn't hurt.

Pulling out my pan and taking it to the oven to heat up, my movement caught both the attention of Lily and Crisplet, who gave me a burst of embers when I walked over.

"All done! I completed both quests," I said happily to them.

Putting the pan down on the hot surface, I pulled out some suet to get oil in the pan. With the thunar, I went back to the counter and cleaned enough space to prepare some other ingredients, pulling out some of the foeni, the Pyrrhosite crystal, some garlic grass, and tried some of the dried legarant flowers as well, since it should be mana-related.

I crushed up the flowers into a powder, adding it to some butter with the sliced-up garlic grass. I left the chopped foeni loose and scraped off a little of the salt, getting it ready to add near the end.

With all the ingredients ready, I began, starting with the thunar in the pan that already had some oil in the base, where I got a really nice crust on it before flipping. Once I flipped it, I added the infused butter on top, which let off a rich garlic aroma. Next, I added the foeni to the pan, which quickly wilted and joined with the butter.

I noticed Crisplet had reduced the pan's heat to stop it burning the ingredients, but it was still forming an amazing crust on the thunar.

Lastly, I added the pyrrhosite salt and some pepper, flipping it one last time, really proud of the perfectly caramelised crust on the outside.

Only a minute later, I got the burst of embers from Crisplet, and I removed it from the heat, carrying the pan to the counter where I pulled out two plates…

Well, I say two plates—I pulled out a single plate and a platter for Lily. And after putting a single piece on my plate, I was interrupted by Liane, who was sitting in the corner.

"Don't suppose you'd have some to share? The food we had wasn't very good," she said with a grin.

I was expecting something like this, so I pulled out a second plate and served up another, then placed the four on Lily's platter and put it down on the floor for her after adding plenty of the butter mixture from the pan.

For mine and Liane's, I pulled out a lemon from my storage, cutting it in half—the seeds would be annoying, but I was tired—and placed it on the plate after putting a healthy load of infused butter from the pan over the fish.

Handing it to Liane, I was just about to go for a bite, then I paused, quickly held out my hand to Liane's plate before she could eat it, and used Purify—just in case.

On my own plate, likewise, I used Purify. I wasn't overly worried about any toxins, but the salt still scared me…