NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13: Lazy Lukas
"I can see it working but you'll have to first introduce this to the locals. Based on my experiences, this is a very new dish to this town and the people here are not too adaptive to change especially when it comes to food. Unless you provide them something that's more affordable than their home cooked meals, they'd rather cook food themselves. They mostly prefer to eat bread by dipping it in a gravy."
Lukas smiled when he heard this, "So you see no problem with the dish itself but you're worried about people accepting it. Making it affordable huh… I have a way to get the people to try it."
He kept the information on addiction to himself as he formulated a plan which needed assistance from the baron. One which might cause quite a bit of losses.
Robinson stared into the air for a moment before he immediately stood up, looking absolutely shook.
"Y-you! This can increase our stats?!! And by so much?!" he asked as he looked at Lukas, his lips quivering slightly, "This…. this is the food of gods!! Only the chefs hired by nobles of high ranking and the royal family can achieve something like this."
Lukas was stumped when he heard this.
'So there's other people who can make magical food too but… if their buffs are on this level, then… it's a little pathetic. I'm still using my FFF rank ingredients instead of the new F ranked ones. I wonder how big of a buff I'll get this way.'
Robinson glanced at Nina and then his gaze went back to Lukas as he nervously asked, "Are you really going to sell something like this to regular people? The nobles would pay you in tens of silvers for something like this… and just for a single meal. You're not even using monster meat like the other chefs which is even more baffling."
He felt like he was about to explode from the shock he had just received and the more he thought about it, the more shocked he felt.
Lukas was baffled yet again as he asked, "Monster meat?"
'Well… if there's knights and various strong jobs, then it isn't far off that there's a possibility of monsters existing.'
Nina saw the poor man on the brink of hyperventilating so she did the only thing she knew to do when people were showing signs of falling sick, she brought him a glass of water.
Robinson gladly drank it and took a deep breath before plopping back down on the chair, "Monsters contain mana so their meat is special. The chefs who prepare these magical dishes cannot make them special without using monster meat. There are some plants that contain mana but they're apparently very rare."
He paused for a second and said, "I won't stop you from selling this but… you should think about your own safety. Even an increase of one or two will feel amazing since most people's highest stats are around six or seven. Just an increase of one or two will make them experience a qualitative change. Ten is just way too much… they might get high on such power and we can't ignore the fact that there are bad people. Who knows what they'll do if they have access to such power."
Lukas nodded as Robinson's words made sense. He thought for a while before placing the papers back on the table, "I'll see what I can do about this. Based on this report, there's a large coal mine, a paper and a cloth factory in this town. More than fifty percent of the male population here work in the mines while thirty percent of the females along with ten percent of the males are distributed among the two factories."
Robinson nodded "The rest do odd jobs. Selling various good that are produced in their household, like milk. There are newspaper delivery guys, shop owners and then there are those who make things at home and sell them, like matchsticks, candles and shoes."
"Got it. The best place to set up a store is in the Baker's cross then. Since most people would have to pass through this place to get to their workplaces. That's 60% of the male population and 30% of the females. Hmm… alright I guess that's it for today. I'll talk to the baron tomorrow and come up with a plan. Thanks for all the help." Lukas said as he took the plate of stuffed bread from the kitchen and gave it to Robinson.
"Here, take it home and share it with your family… if you don't have one, then eat it yourself." he said with a smile and caught Nina standing on the side with her lips pursed as she stared at the plate.
"Oh and don't forget to return the plate." he hastily added.
Robinson thanked him and left quickly, leaving the siblings to themselves.
"Let's go make more…" Lukas said as he gave Nina a bronze coin. He really wanted to buy the white bread but "celebrating" for more than a single meal was the same as asking to be killed.
He didn't have to say anything as Nina left without a word.
Once she was gone, he looked at the large bag of ingredients he had brought from the baron's house before he glanced at the large steel pot that he spent two silver on.
While the water boiled, Lukas washed all the potatoes. These were all regular potatoes, amounting to a total of five kilograms. Along with those, he also added in one of his FFF rank potatoes.
He cut it into eight pieces to make sure it cooked at the same speed as the other smaller potatoes.
Nina came back after five minutes, only to be sent back out to buy a bunch of loafs.
Lukas felt a little guilty for sending her again due to his lack of planning.
"I could have gone myself but ehhhh maybe there's a job that gives buffs to lazy people." he said as he prepared the other ingredients.
'If I dilute the powers of the ranked potato by using regular ones, maybe the stat boost at the end will be lower.'