271: Clacks
I watched in fascination as the bird ate the spider leg with real passion, having absolutely no problem breaking through the exoskeleton, each time letting out a loud crack.
“I think we should call it Clacks; it’s like cracks, but sounds better, also, it’s also similar to Clackers from Boltron, he was nice so this works.” I said.
Crisplet immediately gave me a burst of sparks as he had not left my side once over the last half an hour.
“Oh no you don’t!” I heard Jen say behind me, while Liane just burst into laughter.
When I looked behind to see what was happening, she was looking directly at me.
“Wait, I did something?” I asked, confused.
“Yes, you did! You can’t name it! Everyone knows the moment you name it, you intend to keep it, Trevor; we don’t know what that is!” Jen protested.
I waved it off. “It’s just a name; I can’t keep calling it bird. Everyone has a name.”
From up front, I also heard Milo let out a chuckle.
Once the spider leg was finished, Clacks went back into what was left of the nest and out of sight, I assumed for a well-deserved rest, so I moved on to something that I was actually excited for now that I had time.
Notifications:
You have reached Level 35 in Arcane Chef
You have +2 unspent stat points
You have gained a new ability
You have a new ability selection
My eyes went wide at that; I not only got to choose an ability but also had been given one?
Congratulations on Level 35!
Choose from the following options:
Ingredient Appraisal
Skill type: Active
Every ingredient has a story.
- Allows you to appraise an ingredient and tell its mana content, flavour profile, and affinities.
- Higher levels allow the appraisal of higher-level ingredients.
Skill type: Active
Take only what is needed.
- Allows the user to remove or weaken an aspect of a meal
- Higher levels allow the user to remove more powerful aspects and save them.
Skill type: Passive
Even legends must eat.
- Meals prepared by you are capable of nourishing beings who exceed that of ordinary creatures.
Skill type: Passive
Comfort is its own magic.
- Increased buff potency and duration when cooked in a secure, stable homely environment.
Skill type: Passive
Too much of a good thing.
- Will provide a warning when a meal is considered toxic to consume via potency or toxins.
Skill type: Active
Don’t worry about the dishes.
- The Chef can create sufficient plates, bowls, cups, cutlery, and other basic dining utensils to serve a feast. Created items remain until damaged or the meals completion.
Selecting Mythic Cuisine.
Congratulations! You have gained the ability Mythic Cuisine.
Congratulations! You have gained the ability Soul Nourishment.
Mythic Cuisine
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
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Even legends must eat.
Soul Nourishment
Level: 1
Experience: 0/100
Nourishment for what lies within
I was used to receiving vague skills, but this one was especially so, though it wasn’t entirely unexpected; every time I viewed my stat sheet I saw the line, ‘feed the body, grow the soul’, and for months now there really hadn’t been any skill that directly affected the soul.
Until now.
I was nervous to talk to Milo about this since I had made my selection without even so much as mentioning it to anyone, but in this situation, I couldn't have pictured a skill better suited for what I did; sure it likely wouldn't help me, or the team, but it would help Lily, Sylverith, Huling, Alira, and any others I may meet in the future.
I didn't exactly know how it would help them, but it was worth the risk.
"Uh Liane, any chance you could swap with Milo briefly, I've got some new skills I wanted to discuss." I asked.
I knew especially after the attack that Hari wouldn't accept losing the person in the middle of the caravan, and right now with Clacks, there was no world where Crisplet was going to leave my side.
"Aw, I want to know what they are too," Liane grumbled.
Jen surprised me by riding ahead with a laugh, and switching places with Milo.
As Milo came back, he already had a frown on his face; did he know I had selected the skill already?
“What have you done? Is the bird secretly a dragon?” Milo said as he arrived.
I looked at him, shocked. “Wait, what? No? Clacks is just a bird, no scales,” I said.
“Clacks… you’ve named it,” he stated simply.
“Yes, but it’s not why I called you here; I hit level thirty-five, and I got new skills,” I explained.
“You’re levelling incredibly fast, but go for it. What have you got?” Milo asked, already pulling out his notebook.
I felt nervous. “Well, I already picked the skill,” I began, before telling him all the options I originally had.
“I see, and you chose Mythic Cuisine then, I assume?” Milo asked, having written everything down.
I nodded. “How did you know?”
Liane let out a snort of laughter next to us.
Milo just laughed as well. “Because it’s the option I would have suggested for you anyway, and the only option you would have selected. Culinary Warning is almost useless to you now with the new reclamation skill; Home Cooking, like we discussed last time this appeared, wouldn’t be helpful; skimming and appraisal, our position on those has not changed, you’d get limited use.”
I was nodding along, agreeing with the assessment so far.
“So that leaves the utensils and the mythic creatures; if you were anyone else, I would be saying the utensils seem to have amazing utility and would save so much storage space, but this is you; we can only assume you’ll eventually meet more behemoths of this world. You made the right choice,” Milo said finally.
“I got another skill as well, but this one is, well, very vague,” I said, explaining Soul Nourishment to Milo.
Milo seemed to contemplate this for a long time, before saying, “I had noted here for the longest time, ‘feed the body, grow the soul’. You told that to me on one of the first days we met, and I never really understood the soul part. Over time, I have been considering the fact that we too are becoming accustomed to intense auras as part of this growing of the soul.”
“Until now…” I added.
“Until now, though I still suspect prolonged consumption of your food is giving us a higher tolerance to auras, and I don’t believe it’s purely due to proximity as we’ve discussed already. But this skill, it’s vague and it directly affects the soul, which is something we know almost nothing about. It’s considered the realm of the gods; they deal in souls, but there are abilities and events that can damage one’s soul.” Milo gestured to me.
“You, for example, the damaging of your mana pathways: they say in extreme cases it can damage your soul as well.”
We were interrupted by Clacks coming out of the nest, and chirping again.
Instinctively, I pulled out the leaf-bladed spider and broke off another leg, putting it in the nest, where a loud crack sounded.
Milo looked at the bird and then to me. “I can’t believe you named it, Trev. You need to work out what that bird is, so I’d be looking in your monster books. I’ll try and find any information on soul skills and see what I can come up with in the meantime.”
With that, Milo rode off.
“So is Clacks the first mythical creature you used the skill on then?” Liane asked with a laugh.
“Clacks isn’t mythical!” I protested, but I did pull the skill up just to make sure; it was still at zero experience, so I was fine.
I followed Milo’s instructions, pulling out the bestiary I had and starting to look through it. Finding things, however, was easier said than done; the book listed the creature, the expected danger level and where they tended to be located; however, it was all in alphabetical order, and I wished it was by region.
The birds I knew, the blood owl, wind hawk, rok, and galvonson all resided in the dark forest, but none of the birds fit the description for Clacks, especially not the blue mark.
In the late afternoon, Lily and Huling returned, both appearing alongside me where Lily quickly spotted the bird, which was now chirping loudly.
Huling came right up close on the side of Sable, looking at Clacks.
“Oh! You have a baby Bluetail!” Huling said happily, reaching a finger forward, which Clacks pecked at.
Inside, I let out a giant sigh of relief; ‘Bluetail’ didn’t sound bad at all.
“Why do you have a Bluetail, Trevor?” Huling asked, her eyes staring at me.
“This is Clacks; its nest was destroyed when the treants attacked us earlier, and I couldn’t leave it behind. I was hoping Lily or yourself would know what to do with it.”
Huling reached forward towards the nest again as Clacks started to peck at her hand.
It didn’t do anything, but Clacks was having none of it.
Huling let out a laugh in my mind. “Trevor, I suspect you’re going to be stuck with this little girl; you saw her reaction when I asked if she wanted to go back, and that’s even if I could find her parents, who likely ran as soon as the treants got into a battle.”
I heard Jen laughing behind me.
“What its a girl? Hold on, I can’t keep her; I don’t know how to look after her,” I protested.
Huling shrugged.
When I looked back to Jen and Liane, Liane was just holding back her laugh by covering her mouth while Jen was just shaking her head.
“It wasn’t planned!” I said.
Pulling out the bestiary again, I skipped to where the Bluetail was located: common sight along the rivers and coasts, incredibly intelligent, minor water magic which it utilises for hunting, females have bright blue plumage, while the males only have a blue tail.
Low threat to adventurers.
“It’s low threat!” I called out, getting pecked on the finger at the same time.
While the conversation had been going on, I noticed we were passing three small houses that seemed to be attached to some small fields, with one house seemingly backing straight onto the eastern forest.
“Isn’t it dangerous to live here?” I asked.
Jen nodded. “Yes, this is actually the village we mentioned; there are four houses in total, and they are all run by old adventurers.”
“Wait, this is a village?” I asked, shocked, looking back at the houses.
“Yeah, they didn’t want to be under the rule of the town’s lord up ahead, so they made their own village on the border of the land claim. It’s tough, but they make it work; they tend to not touch the dark forest and farm items near or in the eastern forest. Rumour has it they are trying to cultivate mana truffles,” Jen explained.
As I looked over to the forest, I tried to focus my foraging to see if they were succeeding, but either nothing was there, or I couldn’t see it this far away.
I decided to pull out another spider leg for Clacks as the chirping was getting louder.
“Just how much does a bird eat? There’s no way she was getting this much food before, was she?” I asked.