Arcane Chef - Slice of Life x Adventure LitRPG

It didn't take long for us to make it back to the house with Micca. Once inside, Liane quickly informed the others of what had happened.

I was surprised by their reaction—Hari and Jen both went to grab their weapons. Did they really think there might be a follow-up?

Hari also took the paperwork from Liane and, after going over it in detail, nodded.

"Good job getting this paperwork. If they try and pin anything else on him now, it won't stick," Hari said with a chuckle.

"I guess they thought there was no way an orphan would have this kind of money less than a month after leaving the city."

He stored the paperwork but kept his weapon handy.

Micca, through all of this, had been silent. The sudden rush for weapons had even caused Crisplet to burst out of the fire, flames now dark red and looking quite intimidating.

"It's okay, Crisplet—no one's here to hurt us. This is Micca; she's a friend, from the gates," I said, gesturing toward her. After a quick burst of bright sparks, Crisplet slowly returned to the fire.

"Uh… sorry," Micca began. "I should have said. The Lord's men came looking for you shortly after you left—both at the inn and at my place. I didn't know he was here."

"It's okay. I'm not thrilled about losing three gold, but if this means they have to leave me alone now, that's good news," I said, trying to stay positive.

"Well, they probably won't give up that easily, honestly, Trev," Jen said. "I imagine they'll try to catch you alone at some point over the next couple of days. And if they're particularly committed, they may try to use your friend here to get to you."

She glanced at Micca, who looked genuinely shocked.

"Wait—me?" Micca asked.

"Pretty common tactic, honestly," Liane said. "Take a friend or family member, tell the target they'll be released if they come along quietly. And the nice person—who cares about their friends or family—always does."

"It's probably best you stay here instead of at the inn for a couple of days."

"Wait—but what about my caravan?" Micca asked, worried now.

Hari just laughed. "That caravan won't be heading to Boltron for a long time, unfortunately. And honestly, I'm not sure going there right now is the best move anyway."

Liane finally spoke again, throwing her arms over the back of the chair as she sat down.

"Honestly, I don't think they'll try much here in the city. More adventurers stood up than I expected back at the inn. That was a significant show of force."

She stretched her legs and smirked. "There's a good chance he'll run back to his Lord. Coming from a small town like that, they won't have the resources to go against the Adventurers' Guild. They'll probably cut their losses."

I looked at Micca apologetically.

"Sorry for getting you dragged in again."

She just waved me off. "You've mentioned Boltron is a bad idea—twice now? What happened?" she asked, glancing between Hari and me.

Liane let out a snort of laughter. "Now that is a story to tell. Trev's cat is starting wars with gods and dragons, and everything in between."

That got a laugh from Milo and even a chuckle out of Jen.

"It's not my cat!" I tried to protest, but was waved off—again. And Micca, it seemed, was all in. She turned straight to Liane for all the details.

What followed was a grand and thoroughly embellished retelling of events, including how I'd apparently befriended a continent-destroyer level beast and set it loose on a dragon, who broke free, destroyed half of Boltron, and was now fighting another dragon in the forest… who, somehow, was also my friend?

"None of what she just told you is true!" I said, trying to defend myself, but Micca only smirked, clearly enjoying every word.

"Well, it's not far from the truth," Hari added, looking contemplative from his chair.

"You do have a continent-destroyer level beast following you for snacks. It did attack the dragon. And the dragon did destroy a large portion of Boltron."

Micca looked completely stunned.

"Wait—wait, wait…" she said, shaking her head. "You're telling me most of that was true?"

"Yup," Liane said, grinning wide.

We ended up chatting late into the night before most of us eventually turned in. It was decided there would be a watch tonight, just in case. I shared a room with Milo and Hari, while Micca stayed with Jen and Liane—so that there'd always be someone with each of us.

Stolen novel; please report.

Crisplet remained in the kitchen, still building something out of coals inside the fire. It looked to be a building of some sort.

Tomorrow was going to be a lazy day. I'd mostly just be cooking—which sounded amazing.

We'd all agreed to skip shopping today, and Jen had volunteered to go out and buy a bunch of apples and maybe some melons so I could practise carving runes. The other thing I wanted to try was starting the sugar cane juice… though I still wasn't entirely sure what I'd do with it yet, so it was more of a maybe.

I woke up early the next morning and decided to get straight to work. With Micca back, I really wanted to make her pancakes—to show her how far I'd come. Now that we were back in town, I could be a little more generous with ingredients too. Plus, I was pretty sure she'd never tasted Dilwater berries before.

After saying good morning to Crisplet, I noticed he'd continued building what now looked like a grand manor made of coal. The door was missing, and it was large enough for Crisplet to move in and out.

It was genuinely impressive.

"That looks amazing, Crisplet!" I said, noticing the small details etched into the coal. He had really gone all out. I got a burst of sparks in response.

"I'm going to cook breakfast now," I added, pulling out the ingredients I needed. I mixed the flour, egg, milk, and sugar into a smooth batter, then pulled out my pan and melted butter in the bottom.

By the time everyone had gathered in the dining room, I had a large stack of pancakes ready. I'd set out honey, a bowl of mixed fruit, and some butter for people to help themselves.

Once again, breakfast was a big success. Turns out Micca had a sweet tooth too—she didn't even question the Dilwater berries after Jen pointed them out.

Hari and Jen decided to go shopping that day, while Milo and Liane opted to stay behind. Milo wanted to continue his studies, and I had a feeling Liane just wanted to eat whatever I cooked. Micca also stayed—none of us really trusted that Simon wouldn't try something again.

Next on my list was prepping another Drake steak for the cat. I didn't know exactly what to pair it with this time, so I sliced off a giant steak around the same size as before. I made several pockets in the meat and filled them with onion, garlic grass, sliced tubers, some Virfolium, and a couple of Blood Tears. I made sure to keep some ingredients aside for future snacks too.

I didn't use the Dawnroot this time, but I did shave off a little Mana Truffle and tucked it into the filling.

Then I ran into the same problem as last time—I didn't have a surface large enough to cook the steak properly.

Micca had been watching me the whole time, asking questions about everything—from the meat itself to the ingredients I was using.

"Can we try it when it's done?" she asked, eyes lighting up with curiosity.

"No, not that one," Liane cut in before I could say anything—surprisingly, she was the one to say no. "Speaking as someone who tried the last one—unless you're able to burn off several hundred mana in a couple of seconds, it will almost certainly burn your channels."

Micca's eyes widened in shock.

"She's not wrong," I added. "I licked a salt crystal that nearly burned mine out and knocked me unconscious... and that was just a tiny taste."

"Why would you lick a salt crystal?" Micca asked, completely confused.

I just let out a long sigh and changed the subject.

"Uh, Milo—sorry for interrupting—but is it possible to get a large cooking vessel for the steak?" I asked.

Milo glanced up briefly from his books, nodded, and went out the back door. He returned a moment later carrying a ball of stone, which he then shaped into a large, shallow dish—big enough to hold the steak easily.

"I didn't want to damage the floor by taking stone out of it," he said before going back to his reading.

Crisplet had already gone to work, heating the stone pan now sitting above the fire on the cooktop. I added some suet as well, making sure there was plenty of fat to get a nice sear and colour.

While that cooked, I moved on to the next thing I wanted to try. I didn't even really know what I wanted to use it for—I just knew I wanted to use it: the Frost Nettles I'd picked up.

I decided on cookies. A simple baked snack. Butter, sugar, egg, flour, and a pinch of salt gave me a thick, crumbly dough. Then I pulled out the Frost Nettle—and immediately my fingers went tingly.

I purified them straight away, just in case. Then I finely chopped the nettles and added them to the dough, along with some Dilwater berries and a handful of small, round black berries I'd picked up at the market—ones that weren't too wet.

Once it was all mixed, I portioned it out onto three stone plates, rolling the dough into little balls and spacing them out, ready for baking.

"What are those?" Micca asked, intrigued.

"They're going to be Frost Nettle cookies. Sweet snacks—hopefully with buffs," I said.

At the word sweet, I had Liane's full attention.

"Not yet! I'm cooking the Drake first," I warned, pointing toward the sizzling steak.

"You don't have to use Crisplet to cook, do you?" Micca asked. "You could just bake them yourself?"

"Yeah, I could," I said, "but Crisplet's really close to level five. If I cook with him, he'll probably hit it today—and then he might get an evolution quest too."

"Ohhh, that makes sense! I have an evolution quest, but I've been stuck at one of five for ages. I need to sell in five different towns or cities," Micca said with a sigh.

"Well, we're in a new town now. What do you have on you that you can sell?" I asked.

"Uh, not much, honestly…" she replied, thinking for a moment. "I really only have my gold and some clothes—oh wait! I know!"

She started pulling off the necklace she was wearing.

"Here! This is perfect," she said with a giant smile. "I will sell you this necklace of friendship for 1 copper," she added, holding out a thin leather necklace with the shape of a heart on the end, strung on a fine cord.

"Uh… I don't know if I have any coppers. Would you take a silver?" I asked, checking my coin pouch.

"You're honestly the worst haggler. Who goes from one copper to one silver? …But deal!" she said happily, holding out the necklace.

I happily traded the silver for it and put the necklace on. It was a simple thing—but it was from a friend, so that made it priceless.

It took close to an hour for the Drake steak to fully cook, and the entire house was filled with the smell of roast meat. I infused it, then quickly stored it before any accidents could happen.

Next, I started to bake the cookies. In total, there would be fifteen.

Surprisingly, they were ready much quicker than everything else. Before I knew it, Crisplet was giving me a burst of sparks to indicate they were done. Using a rag, I pulled away the stone plates and set them on the counter, then transferred all the cookies to a clean plate to cool down.

While they were all on the new plate, I used Infuse on them. Then I wanted to try something—there was a chance it wouldn't work, but I had to test it and find out.

I pulled out one of the uncooked spiders from my inventory, causing Micca to cry out in fright.

"It's ok! It's dead. I'm going to test something," I said, before using Reduction on the spider.

A moment later, I was holding that familiar, dark green, sickly-looking orb. I took it to the plate of cookies, stacking them on top of each other as best I could, then pressed the orb into the top cookie—wondering if the buff would apply to all of them… or just the one.

If it was just one, then making snacks this way with essences would be way too expensive. But if they all got buffed...

It seemed Liane and Micca were both already poised as taste testers. I handed Liane the top one—the one I knew had the spider essence—then gave one of the lower cookies to Micca. I grabbed one myself to test too. Milo was still too busy scribbling notes to notice.

When I took a bite, my mouth was immediately flooded with a sensation like fresh, cold water. Every breath I took felt icy—but it was sweet too. They were actually really nice. Just… very strong in that icy flavour.

"Wow, these are intense," Micca said, having taken just one bite.

"Sooo good!" Liane added, seemingly taking deep breaths to feel that icy-cool sensation.

"Did you both get the same buffs?" I asked curiously.

Liane was first to answer. "It's interesting, actually—Major Fire Resistance, Minor Cold Resistance, +2 Intelligence, +1 Perception, Major Stealth, and Poison Resistance. But this is the first time something Crisplet helped with didn't give Fire Immunity, right?"

I nodded. Did the presence of Cold Resistance reduce it?

"Mine is the same," Micca said, "but no stealth, and only Minor Poison Resistance."

"I guess the essence only works on a single cookie then. Oh well—back to the drawing board," I sighed.