Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

Milo didn't wait for the others to try the stew, but grabbed a bowl straight away instead. I was curious as well. I had tasted Buvul and mushroom stew many times when Geo made it, so I wondered if the flavour would be drastically different.

With my first bite, I took a little hesitantly. It was very similar—rich, hearty—but there was almost a spice to it now, even though I hadn't added any spices. As I continued eating, the spice grew. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was very present, enough that I found myself reaching for a drink of water before long.

"This is really good," Hari said, having nearly finished his own bowl already.

"It really is. There's a building spice that's really adding to the flavour!" Milo added.

Both of them finished their bowls quickly before checking the buffs it provided.

"Liane's going to like that one…" Milo chuckled.

"It has +2 Dexterity, +1 Strength, and something called Ambush Efficiency…" He trailed off.

I was confused about something there. "No fire immunity?" I asked.

"It was already active from the jerky, so I already had it, unfortunately," he said.

"Ambush Efficiency seems to be an interesting ability," Hari said, nodding approvingly. "It's a passive that increases damage when attacking from stealth."

Well, that came from the viper for sure—and it explained the change in flavour somewhat. I took my notebook from Milo and wrote down what I had learnt. That made Bark Vipers very useful for Liane despite being common quality. If I could combine two essences—say spider and viper—it would be increased stealth and increased ambush damage?

My mind was racing with potential combinations. I did need to be mindful of the mana cost though. At 100 mana per reduction, plus everything else, I'd be running low very quickly.

It didn't take long for Jen and Liane to return, and sure enough, they both brought back vastly different things. Liane had six Leaf-Bladed Spiders, two more Bark Vipers, and another bird—light brown and looking dangerous.

Would you like to store [Uncommon] Wind Hawk (Whole) x1 for 5 mana? Yes/No

I wonder if that will boost wind magic? Or maybe even speed?

Storing them all, I turned to what Jen had brought back. Hers was considerably larger: a Rock Boar and two Sky Wolves. This would be super helpful!

I really wanted to show off my new ability to them, so I took out one of the spiders—since they were common—and used the skill.

The essence formed as a dark, almost black, sickly green orb. Like the last one, it gave off a strange, unsettling feeling.

I wanted to place the essence into the stew, but I was already low on mana, and if I used up another fifty, I'd be very close to empty. Instead, I just explained what I had done before, and they both tried a bowl of stew.

I noticed Hari helped himself to a second bowl when they did.

It took all of about two bites before Liane's eyes opened wide, and she mouthed the name of the ability.

"That ability is sooo good! I want to use it now!" she said.

Hari shut it down, though, and insisted that tonight she'd need to actually be on watch. She begrudgingly agreed.

I went to sleep early that night. Walking all day in armour had really taken it out of me, and I felt exhausted, although my body wasn't aching like I expected it to.

The next morning I made a basic porridge for breakfast using milk and honey, along with some fruits.

After infusing it, I considered using the essence, but I felt like I shouldn't waste it.

One thing I noticed, though, was my quest was still at 0/10. How did this not count? I hadn't made porridge yet while I had the quest…

"Milo, you might be able to help. I have an evolution quest that says I need to cook ten unique dishes, but when I made this porridge, even though I was able to infuse it, it doesn't count. Any ideas?" I asked as Milo was helping himself to breakfast.

He thought about it for a long while. "I can only think that the term unique is just that—unique to all. So it would be a combination or food item that hasn't been made before," he said, shrugging at the same time.

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"Wait, how does the system know if it's been made before or not?" I asked, shocked.

"There's a lot we don't know about the system, but it would be safe to assume that yes, it knows…" he said, sitting down to eat his meal.

This was a lot to think about. If I needed to come up with ten unique meals that had never been made before, then everything basic was out. I had to assume any stew, pie, or roast meat with herbs had already been done.

So what did that leave? I had to assume things like the spiders counted, but I had already done the spiders with blood tears, and the spiders with virfolium, so they were no longer unique.

"Wait, do you think if I use an essence in it, that would make it unique?" I asked, thinking I had it worked out.

"There's a good chance, yes. Essences exist, but I've never heard of them being used in cooking before," Jen added, now helping herself to the porridge and listening in to the conversation.

That morning, after getting dressed in my armour and packing up camp, I had to break the news to Crisplet that he couldn't wander off and explore because it would be dangerous, so after a single spark shot at me, he got into his brazier for the trip.

I was surprised to learn we wouldn't be riding our horses while travelling through the forest. Instead, we'd just be walking with them.

I didn't understand why—at least not until about an hour into the trip, when I realised that if I'd been on horseback, I would have been ducking and weaving to avoid branches almost constantly.

The other main thing I noticed once we entered the forest was that I had absolutely no idea where we were or what direction we were heading. I was so thankful to Hari. If I had somehow ended up in the forest alone… I wasn't sure I'd ever find my way out.

We didn't run into anything overly dangerous. Liane scouted ahead for us, Hari led the two horses, and besides a couple of spiders who tried their luck, we didn't encounter much else.

"Will we make it through the forest today?" I asked curiously.

"No, probably not. If my guess is correct, we'll be a little over halfway when we stop this evening," Hari said.

Nodding, I activated my Arcane Foraging. I'd already been told we couldn't wander off the path Hari was setting—doing so would increase the chance of getting lost—but there was no reason I couldn't try to find things as we walked!

And I did.

I found another Mana Truffle just off the path, which Milo helped me convince Hari was worth grabbing. I found a bunch of Virfolium and even a small handful of Blood Tears growing right next to each other.

Something else I found, and was very excited about, was a root vegetable of sorts. The root glowed brightly and was smaller but rounder than a carrot. Its leaves shimmered with a rainbow-like sheen, and when I pulled it free from the ground, I was in awe—the vegetable itself almost shone like gold in the light.

Storing it, I got the name.

Would you like to store [Rare] Dawnroot x1 for 5 mana? Yes/No

I selected yes and excitedly told everyone what it was. I saw Milo and Hari both raise an eyebrow at its being rare, while Jen and Liane just wondered what it would taste like.

Crisplet let off a burst of bright sparks and rotated through some colours, so I guess he was happy too!

For the rest of the journey, I didn't find anything else. I had to stop using the ability because I was already down to half my mana—and I hadn't even started cooking for the day.

I didn't really appreciate how much mana my abilities consumed until I was in a situation where I couldn't use them the way I wanted.

I tried to find special ingredients without the foraging ability, but it all looked the same to me.

It was late afternoon when the first real creatures attempted to attack us.

There was a whistle from Liane. At once, everyone stopped and drew their weapons. I pulled out my dagger as well, though I knew how little I'd achieve with it.

A moment later, I heard leaves crunching and a low growl on the wind. Then another. And another. There were several of whatever we were facing.

Then, all at once, four wolves burst out of the undergrowth. One was taken out immediately as Jen shot an arrow straight into its head. The largest of the four slammed into Hari's still-damaged shield, which he then drove into the ground before stabbing it with his sword.

It didn't die immediately, but it fell back, clearly injured. Looking around, I saw another wolf already dead on a stone spike, while the fourth had been split clean in half by what must have been a wind blade.

The alpha attempted to flee, but the moment it turned to run it was slammed into the ground with a dagger through its skull—Liane appearing as if from nowhere.

"The fifth one is dead just past this tree as well," she said, wiping her dagger on its fur before vanishing back into the forest again.

Figuring we'd be silly to waste any of this, I went around and stored all the corpses, including the fifth one, which had its throat cut behind the tree. She really was scary sometimes.

We had only walked for about five more minutes when a large crash sounded behind us, followed by a low, guttural roar.

"That doesn't sound good…" Milo whispered.

"Let's move faster. Stay quiet," Hari hissed, moving us forward away from the sound.

It took only a few minutes for Liane to reappear near Hari.

"It's some kind of bear. It's at the site where we killed the wolves, digging at the ground where the blood was. I'd suggest making sure we wash off any blood before moving—it seems to be attracted to it," she whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

Milo got straight to work producing water and washing down Hari's shield and sword.

The rest of us didn't have any blood on us, so we were fine. After that, we pressed forward, with Jen scouting ahead while Liane kept an eye on the rear. I was left walking with Crisplet in his brazier and leading two horses.

We stayed like this for around an hour before it became very dark. Hari made the decision to stop. There wasn't a good clearing anywhere nearby, but we settled near a creek where Milo built a secure structure, similar to what he had built on the mountain.

The main difference was that he pulled up soil to flatten the ground first, then raised a thick-walled building large enough to hold the five horses. Off to the side, he made a smaller section for us, about half the size.

Hari went out alone to gather firewood, and I served up the stew from last night. The only fresh cooking I managed that evening was roasting half the spiders, just so Liane would have snacks and a stealth buff for tomorrow. Unfortunately, after a day of constant foraging, I didn't have the mana left to attempt anything experimental.

Still—no regrets.

One thing I needed to do, though, was start planning how I was going to prepare the drake. My first thought was to make a giant steak and stuff it with herbs and other bits to make it special.

I didn't need to infuse it tonight, right? I could cook it, then store it for later when I had spare mana.

I got to work, first preparing the spiders. I pulled out seven, which left eight in my inventory after the few we'd collected today.

Skewering them all and adding a single Blood Tear and Virfolium leaf inside each. I'd gotten a minor regeneration buff from Blood Tears before, and Virfolium was commonly used in health potions, so maybe the two together would stack some kind of regeneration.

It would be interesting to test. I still had 130/590 mana, so infusing them would cost me only twenty-five.

Then I pulled out the chunk of drake meat—to everyone's surprise—Using purification on it first, this only cost 10 mana so I felt I could justify it, then from the side of it cut a steak the thickness of my arm. It left plenty of drake behind, but it would be a good place to start.

I wondered… could I use the Essence ability on Drake in a level or two?