246: Firewall
I was nervous about looking at the skills, especially the one I received for completing a quest involving a legendary ingredient. Did that equate to a skill of legendary quality?
Was there such a thing?
I would have wanted to go over them all with Milo, but he was still wrapping his head around the buffs, and honestly, I couldn’t blame him. It was the largest buff to date, with nothing even coming close to it.
So I brought up my new skill selections to have a look myself.
Starting with what I hoped would be the best one.
Skill: Culinary Transformation → Culinary Reclamation
Removes all toxins and poisons from the item.
Converts harmful mana into elemental essence to further enhance the dish.
Provides immunity to poisons and toxins.
I read it over twice, just making sure I was reading it right. It looked like a straight upgrade. Most of the other skill options were side grades, with maybe one or two being a very small possibility of being an upgrade.
But this, this looked to be the skill to choose.
“Uh, Milo?” I had to ask. I wouldn’t be able to sleep on this.
“Hmm? Something else happened with the buff?” he asked.
“Oh no, not that. I completed a bunch of quests, and well, this one I think is worth discussing, as it’s just a straight upgrade from what I can tell,” I explained, before reading off exactly what it said.
Milo was nodding before a grin broke across his face.
“I agree. That sounds like a straight buff to your skill. I had been putting a lot of thought into it and was going to recommend not choosing any of them, to experiment more, but this is a direct upgrade. I think it’s worth picking,” Milo said, noting everything down.
I would select it, but while I had Milo’s attention, I moved on to the next skill’s evolution options, reading them out loud.
Skill: Second Simmer → Stockmaster
Meals created using broths, stocks and soups receive increased buff potency.
Skill: Second Simmer → Ever-simmering Pot
Stocks, stews, and soups continue to develop minor magical qualities while being maintained at serving temperature for separate meals.
Honestly, I was very underwhelmed.
Milo was the first to comment. “I’m not surprised by this result. You’ve really not done a lot of experimentation with the skill and have mostly reused stocks and soups. I kind of expected something with the bacon, but not at all surprised you got something lacking. I wouldn’t select anything here, and just stick with the skill you have and do more experiments to unlock more quests.”
I felt disappointed, but it was true, and I would follow the advice.
Moving on, I was hoping for something better from Precise Palate, especially since it had five options.
Skill: Precise Palate → Concentrated Flavour
Allows for significantly more potent buffs with a considerably shorter duration.
Skill: Precise Palate → Lasting Flavour
Converts potency for duration, allowing buffs to last an exceptionally long duration.
Skill: Precise Palate → Lingering Essence
Allows for a portion of a buff to remain after the primary duration ends, based on skill level.
Skill: Precise Palate → Dominant Flavour
Allows you to increase a single buff significantly, based on skill level.
Skill: Precise Palate → Refined Palate
Allows moderate control over buff duration versus potency.
Reduces penalty based on level.
I didn't know how to feel about these. They seemed bland, and the first two were completely expected. However, Refined Palate looked to be just a flat upgrade to the existing skill, especially since right now it said 'minor control', and now it's saying 'moderate control'.
But the skill that really jumped out at me was the shortest description there.
Dominant Flavour.
Milo seemed to be deep in thought over it as well, and I was surprised when Jen spoke up regarding it.
“Surely Dominant Flavour, right? If you can buff the permanent stats, or even regeneration, or stamina or mana, there are so many aspects of it where you would like a specific buff to be more potent, right?” she said.
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Milo nodded. “Yes, it does seem that way, and you bring up a good point. My focus was just on the permanent stats, but improving healing, improving recovery, or improving selective stats would be invaluable. Then you need to consider the evolutions.”
“Easy choice then,” I said with a laugh.
“Yes, I think so. I’ll admit a straight buff to your existing ability would normally be excellent, but the strength and simplicity of this skill cannot be overlooked,” Milo said.
Liane joined in. “But we don’t know how strong the extra buff will be, right?”
“No, we don’t, but the system doesn’t use terms like significantly lightly,” Milo said.
Nodding in agreement, I decided to just accept it.
Congratulations, you have chosen Dominant Flavour!
Dominant Flavour
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
Congratulations, you have chosen Culinary Reclamation!
Culinary Reclamation
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
I was half tempted to use the voidscale hare stock immediately, but I really didn’t want to keep doing the same thing. Obviously, the system had highlighted that with the skills I was offered, so I would need to mix it up.
When it came to the dragon stock, I would stretch it as far as possible, but for the drake and the hare, I had no reason to conserve it as much, so I could experiment with how I used it.
I only had two quests left to complete now: using a stock in one more dish, but I also had my infusion quest that I kept messing up by creating a meal I didn’t infuse.
Resonate Balance:
Infuse 25 dishes in a row: 5/25
“Remind me to infuse breakfast tomorrow,” I laughed.
Milo looked confused. “Something wrong?”
“Not wrong, exactly. I keep resetting the quest to infuse twenty-five dishes in a row,” I laughed.
“You could just quickly knock it out. Pull out a bunch of rolls and get it done, you know?” Liane grinned.
The look Milo gave her said it all, but I wouldn’t have done that anyway.
Laughing, I shook my head. “No, but I would like to finish it on this run since it includes a legendary dish and a rare dish.”
“That’s a very valid point. Okay, I will remind you. Be careful that you don’t cook anything small by accident. No bacon snacks for Lily that are not infused,” Milo said.
Looking back at my sheet, I was happy with my selection and I would start using it tomorrow. I was especially excited about trying dominant flavour.
Looking over, I saw Lily was actually licking the bowl for the first time.
“You really liked that one?” I asked.
A burst of sparks from Crisplet confirmed it almost immediately.
What I still wanted to do, however, was to use my foraging ability. We were finally in a forest. I could see objects outside the house, and I knew night was rapidly approaching.
“I don’t suppose we could quickly go foraging?” I asked hopefully.
Milo waved it off. “Sorry, Trev. I’m nearly out of mana.”
“It’s probably safer if we wait until tomorrow, Trev. We’ll still be moving through this forest for two days yet,” Jen explained.
And that came as a relief. I was worried we’d immediately be done with it.
“Where is our next stop?” I asked.
“Well, we’re taking the road northeast right now. This meets up along the very outer edge of the dark forest as it wraps north,” Milo explained.
I looked over to Lily. “Are you excited to go past your home?”
She just flopped to the ground, and Crisplet let off some sparks from the middle of the fire where he was working on a new statue, which looked suspiciously like a statue of Crisplet stabbing a branch with a quill made of fire.
Though it was hard to tell in the flames.
It was while watching Crisplet in the flames that I had an idea. It could have been crazy, but I had to imagine it might help his experience gains, especially if defending me was giving him experience.
“I don’t suppose you could include Crisplet on watch?” I asked.
The moment I did, the flames in the fireplace died down as Crisplet looked out, clearly paying full attention to the conversation.
“Why is that?” Milo asked.
“I think it would be good for him, and he might get experience defending me by doing watch? Plus, we know he’s capable of fighting most lower-levelled creatures at this point, right?” I explained.
I got a piece of coal thrown at me, likely for saying lower-levelled.
Milo seemed to think about it. “It’s a good idea, but I’d team you up with Luis then, since he’s fire based.”
There was a single ember from the fireplace before Crisplet dashed over and stood next to Jen.
“There is not a lot of synergy there,” Milo began, but a piece of coal was thrown at him.
“For now, if he joins you, he’ll learn what to do, right? I have Lily inside anyway to look after me, so it should be fine?” I tried to say.
I saw Jen nod before Milo conceded. “Fine. We’ll need to talk to Hari though.”
“I’ll go now,” Jen said.
Crisplet followed her out.
I never really appreciated just how close Crisplet was to Jen, but it made sense. She was always the one to carry him when he was in his orb form, and always the one to look after him when it was too dangerous to tag along with me.
Come to think of it, Jen was also sitting only just below me in the tree statue. How didn’t I put it together sooner?
***
The next morning I awoke to a shout coming from the front door and what sounded like one of the merchants. Hari and Luis were both on their feet immediately, while Liane, still getting up, was far more sluggish.
As they opened the door, the room lit up orange, as if something was burning outside.
Even as I raced towards the door, Hari held me back as he slowly approached the entrance, Nero standing in his doorway looking terrified.
Milo’s head popped around the side. “Oh, don’t worry about this. This is Crisplet’s idea of protecting the house. He’s summoned some giant firewall all around us.”
The moment I heard that, I couldn’t help but laugh. Letting Crisplet do watch was going to turn out great, but any chance of stealth would be completely gone.
Moving back inside, I started on breakfast, remembering to infuse the food. I made a simple dish of bacon, eggs, and fresh rolls. Without Crisplet to help me cook, I kept it simple.
Before long, everyone had made their way in, including Crisplet, who started to push across the feeling of pride, happiness and power, before showing me a slideshow of all the creatures he kept away.
When I looked up at Jen, I saw a laugh and a shake of the head.
“You did great, Crisplet, but if you killed so much, where are all the carcasses to eat?” I asked.
A piece of coal hit me.
I pushed back pride as well while laughing before handing out breakfast to everyone.
Luis had a giant smile on his face, placing the bacon and eggs inside the roll.
“You know, when I did my survival training, they forced me to eat cold meals, stale bread and jerky, saying you’ll rarely get hot or nice food on the road and I had to toughen up. If only they could see me now,” Luis said with a laugh.
“They are not wrong. This is abnormal,” Hari commented.
Jen laughed. “You should try Milo’s cooking.”
While everyone was laughing, I whispered to Luis, “Milo was cooking because he was the best cook of all of them. Just remember that.”
Milo clearly overheard me, because his shoulders straightened and he went back to eating his roll.
“Also, Liane will have you eating spiders before long,” Jen said in disgust.
Luis’s eyes lit up. “What do they taste like?”
Jen let out a loud groan before returning to her food.
Even as we left that morning and Milo’s house turned to dust and back to the earth, I couldn’t help but notice the large burnt ring in the ground where the firewall had been, and as I stepped on it, it cracked almost like glass.
Just how hot did this fire get?