Elizabeth woke up feeling like a wreck, all the lights flared in her eyes and every sound made her mind numb. It was like being hungover but 10 times over. She'd taken Tom's elixirs quite a few time before but the backlash was hard to get used to. Normal elixirs found on the market had been refined to a science so that it would quickly work its effects. After the effects wore off, most players would simply feel tired and groggy. It's the same idea as energy drinks at midnight and feeling insanely tired midday. The elixirs Tom gave Elizabeth were much stronger and potent, unless she wanted to be constantly taking smaller more diluted elixirs throughout the day this was the only way to go. After all, she'd rather have a garbage morning than dying.
She eventually forced herself up and off the bed, shuffling into the bathroom while clutching her stomach. It wasn't long until yesterday's dinner came up her mouth and into the toilet. She quickly cleaned herself up and went down stairs to continue work on Nathan's sword. She finished annealing the blade yesterday, today she needs grind and sand the blade down so it's light and uniform. Normally this process would cause many bruises and cuts on her hand but she is able to hold the blade steadily with her telekinesis while she prepared the handle and guard of the sword.
Nathan has large hands and often strikes enemies with the guard of the sword as part of a combo. What was normally a great sword was a one handed weapon for him, which is why Elizabeth needed to make sure the counterweight was large enough to compensate for the weight of the blade. She designed the guard to be almost like the hilt of a rapier, a large curved metal piece connects the guard to the pummel, one which Nathan could use to basically punch someone like a gauntlet. It is just wide enough to give space for his wrist to move about without causing the sword to be overly heavy on one side.
It would take the whole day to finish grinding the blade so that it has a nice edge, and even after the grinding process, she would have to heat treat the blade until it is perfectly hardened. She often heat treats continuously until it is essentially unbreakable. For now she could take care of other work while her telekinesis does the grinding, holding the blade in place doesn't take much mental work and so it gives her free room to prepare other things.
She noticed Morgan came back tired and sweaty yesterday so she decided to make something hearty and healthy, perhaps even help her with her hunting or training. Not completely sure why, Elizabeth had a random craving for Mexican food. So she decided to make breakfast burritos, they were pretty easy to make and Morgan could bring a portion out with her. She activated her personal skill, Practical flavor. Personal skills were skills acknowledged by the system which were unique to players, many times players innovate and explore the stretches of possibilities the system offers and manages to create skills that are not part of the skill tree. The system rewards players like this with a unique skill partnered with the effects of the systems.
_Practical _Flavor
Unique to player: Elizabeth Lane
Through a deep understanding of flavor combined with the effects of specific ingredients, this player is able to find the perfect ingredients for a dish with the desired effects.
No fatigue or mana cost, effects of food are more than the effects of the individual ingredients. Potency of effects scales with intelligence.
The only downside to the skill was that a lot of the ingredients needed were drops from dangerous monsters or could only be harvested on higher floors. Luckily Nathan brings Elizabeth a portion of the meat gained from the hunts on higher floors which she can use on her more important dishes. Tom occasionally drops by with some herbs, spices and fruit with various effects.
'I want a dish which increases training potential and energy'
Elizabeth said in her mind, telling the system what she wants. A notification appeared before her face, it had the same transparent blue frame as the stat and inventory screen.
"Ingredient list: Blood ox cheese, Living root spud, Mad Blight Boar meat, Cockatrice egg and Minotaur meat."
Blood ox were domestically raised with their milk products sold on the market at high prices, it is commonly known that milk from a blood ox would intensively increase one's growth. Some people even say it's like hitting puberty again. Living root spud were a close cousin of the mandrake, they too scream as soon as they're harvested and required a special process to be taken care of. Luckily they too were accessible on the market, again at high prices due to the difficulty of harvesting, but also since they were capable of vitalizing people who eat it. Mad Blight Boar were found in the swamps of the 32nd floor, the skin of the boars are covered in warts and muck, however the meat is incredibly juice and tender. Both Cockatrice and Minotaur were constantly hunted as they sold for high prices in the market. All the ingredients needed for the dish weren't exceptionally rare, Elizabeth already had all of them from Nathan and Tom.
Normal fridges and pantries would cause the rare ingredients to spoil and go bad, which is why Elizabeth created a special dimension bag enchanted with cooling magic.
Elizabeth's Bag of Colding +5
A small pouch with a dimensional space of approximately 100 square feet, it is similar to a bag of holding except with a frost enchantment. The owner thought it would be funny to name it a bag of colding.
All objects placed inside the bag of colding will be essentially liquified and stored, please do not place anything living inside the bag of colding.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
The bag of colding is bound to player Elizabeth Lane, it can not be traded or gifted.
Elizabeth had all the meats and vegetables she needed inside the bag of colding, thankfully the system made things simpler as all she needed to do is think of the thing she wanted and pull it out, instead of having to grab randomly hoping she gets the right thing. She cleaned up the kitchen and made space to get to work.
First she washed the living root spuds to get rid of any remaining soot and dirt on the skin. Then she cut the spuds into small chunks with the skin on, she could tell that the spuds were much less starchy than the usual tubers she used. She cracked open two Cockatrice eggs into a small bowl and whisked it together with a pinch of salt, a fresh grind of pepper and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. It turned into a slightly bubbly reddish yellow liquid, she pushed it aside and prepared for other things.
Elizabeth pulled out a metal sheet tray out from a cabinet and lightly coated it with a drizzle of olive oil. She put it into the oven and set it to 200 Celsius and started preheating it. She then set a pot on the stove and poured the cut spuds into the water, she seasoned it with a generous amount of salt. She set the pot aside waiting for it to boil while she heated up a nonstick pan. She took a cut of Mad Blight Boar meat and minced it, she then also took a cut of the Minotaur meat and diced it into small cubes no bigger than the spud cubes.
She pushed all the meat off the cutting board into the pan and made sure that all sides of the meat is properly seared before cooking. She stopped sanding the blade downstairs and fully focused her energy on the cooking. A spatula floated up and stirred the meat frequently while Elizabeth focused on making the salsa. She finely diced up some tomatoes, onions and peppers (she made sure to remove all the seeds). She tossed the ingredients together with a fresh squeeze of lemon juice and a tiny bit of vinegar.
The pot came to a rolling boil at this point and so Elizabeth lowered the heat down to a simmer and left a timer for 3 minutes. She poured the whisked eggs in with the meat and let the spatula continue stirring. She pulled out some homemade tortillas she made a few days ago and started defrosting it in a microwave. She cleaned up all the dirty cutting boards and utensils while waiting for the meat and spuds to get finished. The eggs and meat finished first, she poured it all into a small bowl and immediately put the pan into the sink and filled it up with water so it would be easier to wash later. The spuds were done cooking next so she patted them all with a paper towel after straining them out with a colander. Afterwards she pulled open the oven with telekinesis and pulled out the sheet tray. She poured the spuds in and seasoned with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. After slightly tossing the potatoes around in the olive oil, she pushed the tray back in and left the potatoes for 15 minutes.
Now she had time to kill so she went back downstairs to check on the blade, both sides were well sharpened, they both met at a sharp tip. She took out a power rotary tool with a fine tip and started engraving runes onto the blade. This allowed the enchantment process to be easier and for the blade to hold much more mana than the material originally allowed. The engraving had to be extremely delicate as not to damage the integrity of the blade but also utilizing as much of the surface area as possible to fit all the ruins. She heard the alarm go off upstairs so she went up and checked on the potatoes.
They were nice and crispy so she pulled them out and started assembling the burritos. After lightly toasting the tortillas on a pan, she placed it on a flat working area. First was a layer of the egg and meat mixture, followed by the tomato salsa and a few slices of avocado. She grated the Blood ox cheese over all the ingredients and started tucking in the sides of the tortilla. With the sides tucked in, she tucked one side over and under all the ingredients, making sure to push it well under with her fingers. She then picked up the burrito from the outside with her thumbs and rolled it forwards until it was nice a tightly packed. She left it seam side down for a bit while working on the rest of the burritos. With all the ingredients she prepared she made 4 burritos in total.
As if she sensed that Elizabeth was almost done, Morgan walked through the side door. Elizabeth put the burritos on a pan and seared both sides of the tortilla, giving each side a soft press.
"I made enough for you to eat now and also bring out later, take a seat"
Elizabeth said without turning around, Morgan made her way to her usual seat at the counter between the restaurant and the kitchen. She wrapped two of the burritos in foil and placed it in a paper bag, then she cut the other two in half and placed them on a plate. She brought the plate over to the counter and pulled up a bench. Though Morgan accepted Elizabeth's offer to live in the future upper floor, the two have only known each other for a couple days and weren't that familiar with each other. Elizabeth believes that people are more comfortable when they're eating and decided to start a conversation.
"Just a little curious, but are you an earthling or a resident?"
Afterlife opened over 2 centuries ago, with groups of people arriving every few years. So the players of afterlife were separated into two categories, earthlings were people who were sent directly from earth and residents were people who are descendants from the early generations of the Afterlife invitees. People born in the tower didn't immediately have access to the system as it would basically be a cheat for people to be born to high rankers and immediately having access to many of the floors. Of course residents would have an advantage as they had much more time to prepare and become educated about the tower, however the deities were the ones who picked earthlings to be invited into Afterlife, meaning most of the time the earthlings had some sort of incredible potential which would give them an advantage in Afterlife.
"I'm an earthling, invited 3 years ago. How about you?"
"I'm an earthling too, invited 8 years ago. I was struggling for a while but I met Nathan and he helped me pass the trials. I helped make items and cook for him in return for his help."
" Oh you're an earthling too! I assumed you were a resident because you seemed really close with Nathan. What did you do before you were invited?"
Nathan was the son of the previous Hunter's guild guild master, he claimed the mantle when he surpassed his father by defeating his shadow in the hall of fame of the 35th floor trial from when his father was in his prime.
"Oh um, I was mostly off and on between jobs. My latest job if I remember right was bartending at a small joint in downtown Boston. Not many people will hire an uneducated disabled person."
Elizabeth laughed it off, but it seemed like Morgan touched a sore spot. She couldn't help but feel slightly curious about Elizabeth's life. In order to break through the awkward silence, Morgan complimented Elizabeth's cooking heavily until her face turned into a rosy red. After finishing eating, Morgan took the paper bag with the other 2 burritos and headed out to start training again.