181: Challenge
Entering the kitchen, I was immediately met by Lily, who was sitting just next to the door, staring at it.
“Don’t pretend like you didn’t already eat something. I know you had a boar’s foot,” I said, walking past her.
Could’ve sworn I heard a sigh as she walked over to the fire near the oven and flopped to the ground dramatically.
“I’m making you something; it’s okay,” I said with a chuckle.
Wanting to do the test that Sylverith asked anyway and use a pinch of the orchid powder just to see what the buffs would be. I wouldn’t use it all on Lily because it was from a plant I’m likely not going to get more of, so I needed to be very light on how much I used.
I also didn’t want to combine two legendary ingredients, as that again would be wasteful, so I would make something out of the drake. I had some offcuts from when I removed the belly for the back, so that would be fine for a dish.
Pulling it out, I stared at it on the counter. It was a very thick slice, but most of it was fat, and I really didn’t know if Lily cared about that or not. I then pulled out the cookbook and went searching for ideas. Tonight’s meal was beyond anything I could do, I knew that—but I wanted this to be special.
Liane appeared in the kitchen. For once, though, I didn’t jump.
“What are you going to make?” she asked, sitting up on the counter in the corner.
“I don’t know,” I said.
And I really didn’t. After dinner tonight, I realised I am so far from being able to cook actual good meals, and I don’t know where to start.
“You know that meal was supposed to inspire you, not destroy your joy for cooking, right?” she chuckled.
I nodded, staring down at the drake.
“Trev, you know we don’t want fancy food like that, right? It’s nice sometimes, but a meal like that every night would be exhausting. If I ask you what your favourite dish is that you’ve had since leaving the orphanage, what would it be?” she asked.
I immediately jumped to the boar’s foot tonight. It tasted amazing, without a doubt, and if judged purely on flavour, I’d pick that one, but no, that wasn’t my favourite.
“The crumbed fish and fried tubers that Geo made,” I said softly. I was sure that was the one. It was the first time tasting something like that; my first time experiencing lemons, or fried tubers, or even the soft, flaky fish with its crispy crumb coating.
“Exactly. You think if you put that fish in front of the king next to the dinner from tonight he’d choose the fish?” she asked.
“No…”
Liane smiled. “Correct again, because the meals we remember the most and enjoy the most are meals that have fond memories associated with them, usually. I mean, that dessert was great.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“But seriously, Trev, you’ll get there. Those guys have probably been cooking for decades. You’ve had, what now, five months? Or less? If you did what they did overnight, your class is truly broken. Now what are you going to make?” she said.
“I wanted to try using some of the orchid powder to see if it provides a permanent buff as well, and since I was just cooking for Lily, it felt like the best time to test, since it’s pretty safe to assume anything I serve her won’t cause an issue,” I explained.
Liane nodded. “And what are you making for me?”
“For you?” I asked, looking up.
Liane looked incredibly offended, but it was completely ruined by the smirk on her face.
“Yes, me!”
“I’ll figure something out. First, Lily,” I chuckled, turning back to the drake before deciding to store it. Let’s mix this up. I pulled out the crown snails I got all the way back in Farnox that I purged and never cooked.
These would be fairly simple to cook, so to start with I pulled out butter, garlic grass, virfolium, salt, pepper, white wine, and an onion, and started to chop.
I would make the butter mixture, then, laying the snails out on a tray, I would fill each shell with a heaping of garlic butter. A third of them I would do for Liane with just the butter mixture, and for Lily’s I would add in the orchid powder.
I soon had every shell with a spoonful of butter, and Lily’s had just a small pinch of the powder, which felt incredibly strange on my fingers and left no residue after a short amount of time, like it faded away, or was absorbed.
Knowing Auguste wanted me to train more without Crisplet’s help cooking, but for this one I got his help, as I knew the snails could very easily go tough if overcooked. Jen told me that one.
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They cooked surprisingly fast, and Crisplet gave me a burst of sparks for both trays as I removed them, keeping them well apart so Liane wouldn’t try to sneak one. First infusing Lily’s and going for maximum buff with the shortest time for the balance.
I looked up the buffs before infusing Liane’s as well, just to see the difference between the two with and without the powder.
[Rare] Mana Baked Crown Snail
- +3 Intelligence
- +2 Intelligence (Permanent)
- Minor Regeneration
- Surefoot
- Fire Immunity
- +1 Intelligence
- Minor Regeneration
- Fire Immunity
“Why’s that?” Liane asked, scooping out a snail.
“Well, she was concerned the only thing going to provide permanent buffs was dragon meat, and if that were the case, then I wasn’t ever going to spread the word because people will attack and kill dragons. However, the moon orchid dust just provided two permanent Intelligence,” I said, gesturing to them.
“Shh, Trev, you shouldn’t even talk about that out loud with your house staff.” Then her eyes went wide as she looked over to Lily, who had nearly finished. “Wait, for each snail?!” she asked.
“Don’t you have a connection with her now? Can’t you just ask?” I said.
“We don’t have a connection like that! She’s just teaching me some thin… Hey!” Liane said, turning on me.
“I heard nothing,” I laughed, taking one of Liane’s snails for myself to try.
“Lily, is it for every snail or just the single buff for all?” I asked.
She just looked at me oddly for a moment before tilting her head, then leaning down and eating another snail, before turning to Crisplet, clearly passing on a message.
Crisplet let off a single spark a moment later.
“I guess that’s just the once then. I wonder how that works, because I’m sure if we divided it up and two people ate it, then they’d both get the buffs,” I said.
Liane shrugged. “Honestly, I would take a single snail from Lily…”
The glare Liane got even made me catch a breath before she stammered through and continued the sentence.
“Chill, Lily. Take a single snail, wait till the buffs wear off, then eat it again—if that would get you double the important one,” Liane continued, a bead of sweat on her brow.
Lily looked between the couple of snails left and then to Liane, then, seemingly coming to a decision, ate one more snail and pushed the plate back to me.
“I gave you both the shortest buff times with maximum effect, so how long are the buffs for?” I asked Liane while storing the single snail away. It was only as I picked it up that I noticed it had a pearlescent sheen to it, but other than that it looked no different to the regular ones, but I stored it away all the same.
“Thirty-two minutes by the looks of it,” Liane said.
And on that thirty-third minute to the dot, Lily was next to me with her giant paw on my leg.
“Yeah, I got it,” I said, pulling out the snail, which vanished straight from my hand.
After a quick glance at Crisplet, I got a burst of sparks, which I felt had to mean that Lily got the permanent buff again.
Liane came to the same conclusion. “That’s very important, Trev. You only put a pinch of that powder into the butter mixture. If they just have to wait for the buffs to wear off to go again, that will be incredible,” Liane said.
“Except for the fact that the ingredient is from an extinct flower, so it’s incredibly limited regardless of how much I have now, and likely shouldn’t be wasted, especially not on people I don’t know,” I said.
Liane nodded. “True, but Sylverith took a seed, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, but I know nothing about it. Do you? For all I know, that seed might take a century to grow, and I’ll be long dead before any petals grow off it,” I protested.
What I didn’t expect was a glare directly from Lily that caught me entirely unprepared.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking to Liane to see where I had messed up.
“Uh, Lily, he’s human. No regular human really lives past a hundred years or so. It takes some very powerful magic, or classes to even reach two hundred,” Liane said, as the glare turned to her now.
“I would live longer if I could, Lily. I’m not rushing to die over here,” I chuckled, trying to make a joke to lighten the mood.
Crisplet made a very quick statue of Alira, where I was the humanoid figure in the middle.
“No, Crisplet. As much as I’d like that, I’m not an elemental. I can’t go down that path. But you could, couldn’t you?” I said with a smile.
It looked like Lily let out a huff before vanishing, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bewildered. Also, she can talk. She spoke once; why not just tell me what she wants?
My confusion was interrupted by Crisplet throwing a piece of coal at me, then showing me a mini statue of me, before transforming it into one of Alira again. I was just about to explain again that it wasn’t possible when Liane beat me to it.
“I think what they are trying to tell you, Trev, is that they are trying to make you last forever? Or just a long time?” She said, looking to Crisplet, who had just burst into sparks, clearly happy Liane understood.
“But how? I’m human,” I said, confused.
“That I don’t know, but now it makes more sense why Alira came to visit. But it’s not impossible for someone to last a long time. If that was truly Morlin the adventurer, he’s going on a few hundred years old. The king is rumoured to be close to a hundred and sixty,” Liane explained.
“What do you mean, rumoured? Surely someone would know. Also, he looks so young—how?” I asked, now with far more questions about everything.
“Something to do with his class. It’s apparently a crown secret. As for Morlin, absolutely not a clue,” she said.
The conversation didn’t progress much further from there. My mind was racing with what it would even mean to live that long, and if it was even something I wanted to do. Sure, you live a long time or forever, but what about your friends?
When I entered my room, Lily was already on the bed with her back to me, clearly still annoyed.
“Sorry, Lily. I didn’t understand what you meant. Thanks for looking out for me,” I said.
She didn’t face me, but I felt a paw touch me as my mana started to slowly drain.
That was good enough. I’d have to ask Milo questions in the morning. I still needed to ask about the cookbook too.