Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

As we turned off the path that would have cut through the mountain range, the trip immediately got slower. The ground was loose and rocky, and Sable was not used to this type of surface. Even though we weren't on the mountains themselves, the slope was steep.

It wasn't until we were a couple of hours into our journey that it dawned on me.

"We're not going to get back to where that crystal was in the cave, will we?" I asked.

"It will be very unlikely. It may still stand, but chances are the cave has at least partially collapsed with the tremors we felt," Milo said.

"That's disappointing," I muttered.

"These things happen. Honestly, you'd be surprised at what gets unearthed by this event. I can't even imagine the materials that would have developed over the millennia that dragon was in the mountain—and it's all come crashing down," he explained.

And that made sense to me. I supposed some of the rocks that fell would be worth a fortune if they contained rare metals.

We didn't end up stopping for lunch. Not that everyone wasn't hungry, but there was simply nowhere we could safely stop with the horses. The ground was dusty and rocky, and Milo wasn't comfortable spending the mana to make a foundation and structure just so we could eat. Everyone agreed it would be better to push as far as we could until we hit the valley before the forest we'd be entering.

The day was boring, honestly. The scenery didn't change at all from the grey, rocky slope until late afternoon, when the dust became more substantial and the rocks thinned out. Then, up ahead as the slope descended, the dust and dirt gave way to grass and brush in the distance.

"Finally!" I said triumphantly, seeing the shift.

Liane laughed. "Just hope we never need to go to the far north, near the volcanic area. Up there, it's all just black rock and dirt that feels like glass cutting your skin."

When Liane mentioned the volcanic area, Crisplet let off a burst of sparks, turning to her.

"Yeah, there are fire elementals there too, although they were all much larger and much more violent," Liane mused.

Seemingly taking this as a challenge, Crisplet almost… puffed up? Sparks shot off in random directions, which only made Liane and Jen chuckle.

"Exactly like that!" Liane said through giggles.

The trip down the slope towards the greener area seemed to pass much faster. I wondered if the horses, having seen the grass, decided to speed up as well. Before we knew it, we had arrived. As soon as we did, we stopped for the evening. It was late afternoon, and everyone was dusty and tired.

But as they all got to work setting up our camp for the night, I immediately set about dinner—as soon as Milo made me a bench.

Deciding to stick to the plan that had been delayed, I pulled out all fifteen of the Lake Veyran Bugs and sliced them in half. Getting some water from Milo to wash out the muck in the head, I was going to cook them in the pan with some butter and Garlic Grass, very similar to what we'd had at the restaurant.

The other thing I wanted to try was making some form of jerky from one of the Buvul rumps I'd purchased. I had a rough idea of what needed to be done from seeing it first-hand several times now, but my plan was to slice the rump into fairly thin, long strips, season it with salt, pepper, and fire salts, then hang it over a thin rod of stone.

Using Crisplet's help and some of the Treant wood I had left, I was going to smoke it and dry the meat slowly over the night. Hopefully, by morning, we'd have jerky. If my notes were correct about the buffs, it wouldn't be the most useful one—well, maybe except for Milo if we got earth magic potency again—but it would be a great test!

It didn't take long before Liane grew curious about what I was doing. After explaining my plan to her, she nodded.

"Yeah, having jerky or something quick and easy to eat just before a battle will be very handy to have. If we can work out what gives a regeneration buff consistently, that would be ideal. But I'll catch plenty of spiders soon for the stealth-increase ones!" she said excitedly.

Once we had set up a campfire, we ended up using the metal brazier we had originally got for Crisplet as our base, and placed the Treant wood inside. I also informed Crisplet what the plan was going to be. So, after Milo made the rack to hold the meat, I carefully placed all the meat hanging above the fire.

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There was a steady, slow stream of smoke washing over it—that was perfect!

Next, I pulled out the pan and got to work on our dinner for the night. I melted the butter in the pan, then added some sliced root vegetables, along with some chopped garlic grass. Already the smell was amazing. Once that had cooked for a short while, I added the Veyran Bugs, placing them cut side down to get a nice brown sear on them.

Once they had that, I was scooping the butter and garlic mix on top to give the shells an even coating as they started to turn orange. That, in combination with Crisplet's help, meant it didn't take long before they looked and smelt amazing. Pulling the pan off the heat, I used Infuse on the whole dish. Crisplet went back to work on the jerky as the steady, slow stream of smoke continued to flow past the meat.

All eyes were on me as I started plating up the bugs along with a healthy spoonful of root vegetable slices—which was really just carrots and tubers cooked in the garlic butter.

After plating it all up and handing it out, I took my first bite, pulling the soft white flesh from the shell. It was absolutely divine!

It seemed the others agreed, judging by the sounds they were making.

"It's so tasty! So much better than the restaurant's one," Liane mumbled through a full mouth.

It didn't take long for everyone to finish the meal, and I found out what the buffs were. Getting my notebook from Milo, I started to write down the effects:

Fire immunity, increased earth magic potency, +2 luck and +1 endurance.

"I think this is the first time we've got luck?" I said as I wrote it down.

"It's certainly interesting. It's honestly a stat with very little known research on it, and the only widely accepted benefit is better loot for dungeon divers. So no one else takes it past baseline," Hari said.

"Do no classes give it as part of levelling up?" I asked curiously, knowing my own class gave stats in several different ones.

"Not that I know of. That said, it's very possible there is a class out there that does give luck, and either it's just not common knowledge or they're keeping it to themselves and not sharing that information," he explained.

"That's sort of the issue, Trev. For a lot of the more common classes there's a wealth of information, but when it comes to evolutions, or rarer classes, most people keep those details to themselves," Milo added.

That made sense to me. I wasn't exactly running around trying to share with everyone what my class did—although honestly, I was doing a pretty poor job of keeping it secret.

I felt that by the time I did pass away, with how loose I was on details, half the world would know everything about my class.

I let out a chuckle as that thought crossed my mind. Here's the story of the Arcane Chef who couldn't keep a secret! Well, at least we have nice food!

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. I got up and brushed down Sable, since there was no one else to help with that anymore. And it was just as well I did—the amount of dust and dirt that came off was staggering. Once I was done, I set up my bedroll, said good night to everyone, got a burst of sparks from Crisplet when I asked if he'd be okay watching the jerky, and then sleep.

The next morning I woke up early. I was excited—likely more excited than I had ever been—and for one singular reason!

Pancakes!

After saying good morning to Crisplet, Jen, and Milo, who were on watch, I got to work. With a stone bowl in hand—courtesy of Milo—I put in flour, some eggs, milk, and sugar, mixing it thoroughly while slowly adding the milk until I had a nice smooth batter.

Then, heating up the pan, I put lots of butter in, getting it nice and hot with Crisplet's help, before starting to add the batter.

"We need to make sure these don't burn, Crisplet!" I said excitedly, receiving a burst of sparks in return.

It took only a single minute before Liane was up, looking more awake than I had ever seen her at this time of the morning. After I had cooked four fairly large pancakes, I put them on a plate, drizzled some of the honey over the top, added more butter, and handed the plate to Liane to taste-test.

I didn't bother infusing these—I didn't really want to add more time between cooking them or let them go cold. So while Liane ate, I got back to work making the next lot.

Jen didn't have honey, so she stuck with just butter. Milo had extra honey and fruit. Hari had a little bit of everything.

In the end, they had been a huge success! Liane wanted seconds and thirds, claiming she needed to try all the different combinations, but I didn't have enough batter. As I ate my own, I found them a little dense compared to bread, but the flavour was amazing—and the crispy edges, the best.

Once breakfast was done, the next thing to deal with was the jerky. Looking up, I saw it had all turned a dark brown and had already mostly dried out. Pulling it off, I bunched it together and used Infuse on it before Liane and Milo both decided to taste-test it.

"Crisplet, you did an amazing job!" I said to the little fire elemental, receiving a burst of sparks in return. It seemed Crisplet was happy with it as well.

"So much better than the stuff Milo makes!" Liane said again with her mouth full.

"Hey! Mine's not that bad," Milo began to protest, before taking a bite. "Actually, no—you're right. This is so much better."

"The buffs are not bad either," Milo added. "Fire immunity, increased earth magic potency, and +2 Strength."

I nodded as he passed me my notebook to write it down.

"I think we can confirm now that Treant wood gives the earth magic potency, Buvul gives strength, and Crisplet gives the fire immunity," I said, going over everything.

"So… can I take it all?" Milo asked, looking at the stack of meat. The wonder in his eyes lasted all of about ten seconds before Liane slapped him on the back of the head.

"You will not be taking our snacks for yourself!" she said—which I found very funny, considering just a couple of days ago we'd discovered she was hoarding snacks for herself.

Once that was all wrapped up, and some jerky was distributed to everyone (Milo and Liane both taking extra), we dismantled camp and set out across the valley. The ride today was far easier than yesterday. The valley itself had several hills, but compared to going around the mountain pass, it felt like we were back on the path again.

For lunch we didn't set up a camp or anything, but we did stop briefly and had some of the jerky I'd prepared. By late afternoon, we could see the forest starting to appear on the horizon.

I attempted to use Arcane Foraging while we were travelling, and I did see some grasses glowing faintly as we passed, but nothing stood out with a bright glow. It was all just… dull. That was, until we got closer to the forest. Once that happened, more and more were lighting up blue.

I also got to see several Grumfels as we travelled. They seemed to live in burrows and looked like round furry balls. I thought Jen or Liane might have gone off to catch some, but it seemed today at least the focus was on reaching the forest before nightfall, so we didn't stop.

I was personally really looking forward to the forest. Dangers be damned, I was excited to see what we'd find. I knew Liane was excited to go hunting for her own snacks, and we weren't worried about dying to a shadow cat now! So that was a bonus—well, not yet anyway.