It took two hours of listening, asking questions, and then more listening on repeat before Chef finally figured out how to actually make the mortar. Watching her work helped him figure out how to mix the ingredients, but he only recognized the clay out of all the different things she was using. And she barely used that at all. Frankly, even the clay looked different than the stuff he used.

Eventually, he was able to listen long enough to figure out what he needed to do. Basically, he needed a rock they called limestone which was mostly white. Where could he get that? She had no idea. Great.

Chef could tell after a few hours that the woman was much more comfortable around him now that she knew he was paying. He was also picking up their language a lot faster than before. That part didn’t matter too much though since he still tuned out most of what she said.

It was self-defense more than anything. The woman’s ambling speech was a blatant attack on his mind.

Regardless, he was able to figure out his new plan. Dig up some of this limestone, throw it in a kiln, and crush it up. Then you just add water and suddenly you’ve got rapidly setting mortar. You could add in a little bit of other stuff to make it better apparently, but the simple version should work well enough for now. His teacher had heard that there were other ways to make it even better, trying out a few in front of him today, but fuck that. Chef had absolutely no interest in trying to reinvent the wheel.

Not that he knew how to make a wheel in the first place.

He picked up his cauldron as he made to leave the house but not before giving the woman a bit more honey. The townspeople outside were quite a bit more cheerful today. His initial reception that morning was a lot better too. Presumably because he walked in with a cauldron overflowing with dead animals and some wild vegetables.

Humans were so predictable. Chef had never had a pet before, but he was beginning to learn. Showing up in town with the cauldron was like rattling a food bowl in front of a dog. Even if they weren’t hungry before, they suddenly became desperate for food.

Disgusting creatures.

Of course, Chef was feeding them which only encouraged their behavior, but he was never one for much self-reflection. He carved up the catch of the day, which were two wolves and four rabbits, set aside the hides, and got to work on the rabbit stew. He used a milk broth with garlic, wild green onions, and a couple drops of honey to thoroughly infuse and soften the meat. It took a lot of experimentation, but Chef had discovered that the wild creatures required thorough infusion in soups to reach the level of flavor and tenderness that he desired. He added in some rabbit bone for additional flavor when he realized the amount of meat was lacking.

When the rabbit stew was done, he yelled as much for the whole town.

“Rabbit stew! Bring a bowl!”

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It took only a few minutes before he got his first taker. After twenty minutes the entire stock was gone and it was time to start on the wolves. He kept the base mostly the same, but left out the honey. The sweetness didn’t go as well with the particularly gamey flavor, at least not up to his standards. Instead, he went with more garlic and onion, threw in a leg bone, some oil, and ground pepper, and went for a hotter boil. That combined with a heavier amount of salt got him closer to what he was looking for. The result was a heartier stew with a more even flavor, removing the normal unpleasant tang from the wolf meat.

Sadly for them, these were still the creatures he wanted to eat the least. Life had gotten so good for Chef that he could get away with not eating the wolves and rabbits at all, instead using them for more bait. Sadly, the boars remained the hardest to kill while staying the tastiest. Every baited boar cost some of his vegetables and required attention by him even now.

Chef was really hoping for some improved Poisoncraft to solve that problem, but for now he’d just have to deal. He continued to muse while trying a spoonful of the stew here and there. Each time he’d sprinkle in a little more seasoning for taste, but he was never quite satisfied with it. Eventually he decided it was good enough for the humans and lowered the heat to a simmer.

This time he didn’t even have to shout for people to gather around with bowls in hand. The hungry hungry humans managed to eat all the stew he provided in short order. Each wolf was large enough for an entire stew, so he started the second batch right after they drained the first. After all was done and cooked, he’d fed the entire town at least once before noon.

Feeding basically the entire town meant that he saw a person or two he recognized. Considering his current predicament of needing limestone and not knowing where to get it, he decided to poll the audience. Most of them were all to happy to give advice that was quickly proven to be patchy at best and entirely wrong at worst.

Fortunately for Chef, the wrinkleman showed up for his bowl eventually. When asked about the elusive limestone, the positively ancient human actually had an answer. Apparently, most caves had a lot of it. If that didn’t work then it should be found after digging far enough. He said that humans mined out hills for it, but obviously the decrepit old man had never done that. Neither had anyone else in the town, obviously, so all of this was ultimately just speculation and hearsay. Great.

Chef began to pack up and head back to the cave, somewhat deflated but still feeling optimistic. He had a few different things he could try, places he could check for the mysterious stone. But before he left for the day, he gave a final jab at the humans.

“Build mill. No more excuses, you are fed.”

With that he was gone and feeling somewhat better. Getting back to his cave home, Chef began to search for the right kind of rock. He scoured the cave but didn’t see any white rocks, giving up and heading back out into the woods. This time he brought his stone shovel along with his sack, ready to dig out some limestone.

Of course, if he saw some wild vegetables, mushrooms, or berries on the way then he’d take them with him, but that was just good sense.

Eventually, he found a nice hill quite a bit taller than the rest of the surroundings and got to work. It didn’t take long for dirt to give way to clay, but that was the easy part. He did find the white rock, and excitedly continued his shoveling. The result was incredibly predictable.

Chef used every point of gusto that he had to slam his stone and stick combo into the limestone rock. Everything broke. The good news was he had more than an entire sack of clay already and managed to gather a little bit of limestone. The bad news was he needed to make another shovel. That meant drying more thatch, looking for the right rocks, looking for the right stick, and all the fun that came along with it.

“Fuck!”

That about summed it up.