Chapter 3: When in Doubt, Eat the Monster
"...but not too many," Liam muttered to himself, his deep voice bouncing around the inside of his oversized helmet. Spring had warned him about causing a scene, and in a game where actual gods were tuning in to watch livestreams, being the player who wiped out the starting village’s entire chicken population was a fast track to either a ban or a patch. Neither outcome worked for him.
He moved through the gaps between wooden houses, trying to be quiet. A Vanguard in an iron plate trying to sneak sounded like a bag of silverware falling down a flight of stairs. He found three more chickens huddled behind a shed, peaceful and completely unaware. Liam adjusted his grip on his starter shield and considered his approach. Hit too hard and the meat bruises. Hit too lightly, and they scream. He lunged. Three clean shield-bashes, fast and practised. The chickens dropped without a sound. He stood over them and waited for the craving to hit, the same gnawing pull as before, but nothing came. The [Absorption] skill stayed quiet. He took a bite of one anyway.
"Bland," he whispered.
He checked his panel.
[Absorption Progress: 4/1000].
It counted but didn’t trigger anything new. Repetition builds the skill but kills the recipe, he thought. I need variety. Higher-tier ingredients. He turned to leave, and a voice cut through the air directly behind him.
"Hey."
Liam’s entire armoured body lurched upward. His greaves clashed together with a sound like a small car crash, and he spun around with his heart going faster than he’d like to admit. He hadn’t heard a single footstep. Cat-players and their agility stats were going to be a problem. Elizabeth stood there with her tail swaying in a slow, suspicious arc, looking at the three dead chickens in his arms and then up at his visor.
"Hey," she said again, softer this time, the way someone talks to a feral animal they’re not sure about. "Can I add you as a friend? I’m genuinely worried about what you’re going to do if nobody’s watching you."
[Friend request received: ElizabethTheWarrior]
Liam stared at the notification. In the real world, she was Rank 1, untouchable, a prodigy who had never once looked his direction. Here she was, a cat-girl offering to babysit a toddler who ate raw poultry in alleyways. If I accept, I can track her position, he reasoned. Knowing where she is means I can go somewhere else.
He clicked accept.
Elizabeth let out a breath that was almost a sigh of relief. "Okay. Good. Just please try to find a pot." She waved and disappeared into the crowd.
Liam watched her go, then turned back toward the tree line where something had flickered gold at the edge of the forest. His stomach turned over, and his mouth watered. That’s not a chicken, he thought, pupils, sharpening. That’s something better.
He was already halfway to the trees when a hand grabbed the back of his collar and hoisted him off the ground. "Not so fast, little Liam."
Spring set him down with the unbothered ease of a man who had seen it all and was not remotely impressed. He had a mischievous look that Liam was already learning to distrust.
"Take a quest before you run headfirst into the forest," Spring said. "And well done for leaving some chickens for the other players. You’re either polite or strategic, and either way I respect it."
[Affinity with NPC ’Spring’: 100%]
[+1,000 EXP granted]
[LEVEL UP!]
Liam blinked at the blue light. A hundred per cent affinity just for having basic manners. This NPC is dangerously easy to work with. Twenty new stat points. He looked at his Defence sitting at 35 and thought about the soup he was twenty minutes away from cooking, the 50,000% melee resistance waiting in his skill queue like a loaded weapon.
Defence could wait.
[Attack: 30 → 50]
Spring clapped his hands together. "Now. I’ve got a job for you. Find a party, take down fifty Rabbit Toads out in Tana Forest, bring me back the returns, and you keep the meat."
[Quest Available: The Leap of Flavour]
Liam accepted without hesitating, then typed:
[What is a Rabbit Toad?]
Spring smiled the way a chef smiles right before he tells you the secret ingredient is something deeply upsetting.
Liam decided he’d find out for himself. He sold three of his chickens at a nearby stall for 15 silver, keeping the one with the bite mark tucked carefully out of sight.
"Not that one," the stall woman said immediately, pointing at it. "I’m not buying something you’ve already sampled."
Liam felt an unfamiliar warmth in his face.
[Understandable], he typed.
He spent 60 silver on a Basic Cooking Starter Kit. Pot, knife, ladle, all cheap iron, all completely unremarkable. He held the pot for a moment longer than necessary.
[Silver remaining: 5]
He found a party at the quest board without much trouble, two players looking for a front-line tank to grind Tana Forest, a Rogue and a Healer who had clearly been standing there long enough to get impatient.
He clicked join, and the party chat opened immediately.
Rogue: "You mute?"
[Yes.] Liam typed.
Mirra (Healer): "Do you know how to play front line? Your player profile look’s ... small."
Liam checked his Attack stat, thought briefly about the soup sitting in his future, and typed back: [I won’t die.]
There was a pause on the other end that he could practically feel.
Rogue: "Confidence is high for a loli-tank," came the reply, and Liam could hear the shrug in it even through text. "Just get to the forest entrance and try not to eat anything on the way."
He closed the panel and stood still for a moment.
That warmth was back, the one that had nothing to do with any system buff, sitting quietly in his chest like a pilot light that never went out.
Hestia, he thought. Still watching.
He adjusted his helmet, tucked his new pot under one arm, and started waddling toward the tree line.
Rabbit Toads, he thought, mouth already watering. Frog legs or buffalo wings. Either way, good soup is on the way.