Turns out that goblins and humans have at least one thing in common: feed them and they shut up. Chef had fed more than an entire bear to these people by the time they stopped clamoring for more food. Around that time, the father came back with four jugs, well Mirri carried one and the yellow haired woman carried another.

They ran up to him, breathing irregular as they presented their jugs to him.

“Alright, Mr. Chef,” the father said in between ragged breaths. “Two for you and two filled with honey for us.”

He nodded, taking one in hand and summoning it full of honey. The following headache nearly staggered him and certainly caused him to wince. Thankful for his face covering, he began to quickly think up what to do.

I promised them two for two right now, but I don’t have the mana for that. I have no idea what happens if I even try, not that I’d do it when surrounded by potential enemies. But I also can’t just tell them ‘I don’t have the mana for that, whoops!’ And expect them to do nothing about it. As pathetic as they may be, I’m not sure how much I could actually do at this level of mana.

Chef was in quite the predicament and had absolutely no plans to get himself out. So, he did what he always did when this happened: he connived. And, despite his initial surprise, he had to accept the truth his connive brought him to.

Yep, I’ve got nothing.

He still had no plans, no thoughts on how to get these people to accept only one of these surprisingly large jugs despite promising two…

Wait, that’s it!

“One for one now. Jug much larger than before. No need it.”

He held out his hand for the empty jug as he kept the honey close to him. Disappointment washed over the two taller ones, but they relinquished their jug regardless. The trade went smoothly, and Chef grabbed his stuff as quickly as he could, dropping the temperature of everything as he did so, pilled as much as he could where he could fit it, and made for the exit. He used both hands to hold the cauldron which itself was filled with, well, everything else. The new jug he put deep into the salt sack, so it could serve as a cushion of sorts. The last thing he needed was a bunch of broken shards after all this work.

But most importantly, Chef just really needed to get the fuck out before they realized how low his mana was. Fortunately, everyone was too stuffed with food to bother him on the way out, and the guards were as ineffectual as usual.

And just like that, he was gone. Wandering back through the woods by way of a nice relaxing creek, Chef tried to figure out what to do next. He had time to kill, that was for sure. The original estimate for the mill had been several months, which Mirri kindly explained were thirds of a season, meaning that he’d have no more flour until autumn.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Autumn. Summer had only started a few weeks ago, but he’d be eating meat with whatever he could scrounge up until fucking autumn. And in a forest where the most plentiful food sent him spiraling into the sky for hours if he ate even a handful of them. In a forest that for some reason had a bunch of giant bears resistant to poison.

Chef kicked the water in the creek as he walked next to it, grumbling to himself as he went. Then he stopped excitedly, remembering that fish exist. He looked down and around the creek, wondering what delicious treats it would bring him. The sound of water running over rock filled the air, birds chirping happily in the distance. A minute passed before Chef kicked the water again and kept walking.

“Stupid empty creek.”

Eventually he made it back to his cave, the one he had earned fair and square. Looking around, the first thing on the to do list was to take stock of what he had. He had enough small bear hide for at least one more set of clothes minus the horribly burnt bits he already tossed or ate. That was something to do at least, so he got started on that. With his current surplus of thatch, it barely took half a dozen rumbles to finish a set, well, it was mostly done at least. Until he got bored.

That was the problem right now. A need to do, to create, but a lack of materials for doing so. Chef decided enough was enough, pulling the jug full of salt out of the sack while pouring the rest into the cauldron. There was half a bear in that and, honestly, not quite enough salt for that much meat let alone the amount he had been carting around, not that he knew that.

Ignoring the long list of things Chef didn’t know, he slung the empty sack over his shoulder and made for the trees of the non-burnt variety. It was time for a massive foraging trip. This time, he wasn’t going to be picky at all about what he picked. If it appeared to be edible, then it went in the sack. If it looked like it would add flavor or could be used to make oil, then it went in the sack. If it moved then Chef would chase it before giving up on putting it in the sack.

He spent the last of his daylight on foraging, went back to sleep in his cave, and then did it again. All the while he had decided on a new pastime. Whenever there was down time, which was near constant, and he had mana, which was the real bottleneck, Chef would activate Summon Flavoring with no target in mind.

As it turned out, the spell would give him something seemingly at random unless he focused on a particular flavor or desire. Sometimes he’d get a tiny bit of salt, other times it would be pepper, and once it was a gob of honey which was not his favorite texture. Of course, having learned from his mistakes of the fire variety, Chef was doing his foraging in the nude. No loincloths or bear fur would restrict him, not when no one could see him. Why, there was no need to be fully covered at all times of the day, this deep in the forest.

So, he just wandered around, circling his cave as he searched out and grabbed whatever looked to be of potential use to him as a cook. So far, he had discovered one new flavoring from his spell, a tiny white clove of some kind that absolutely destroyed his mana reserves despite its size. That was exciting, not the mana drain part obviously, but the discovery part. Perhaps it would go well in the bone stock he was making.

Aside from that he managed to fill up the sack twice over the course of a week. At this point, Chef was ravenous and ready to get back to work, so he made his way to the cave. As he got there, he discovered a few boars inside that had smelled his mushrooms and decided to help themselves.

Having never had it before, Chef was very excited for his first ever delivery food.