Before I went to the mage tower and to use the alchemy station to make the potions, I made a small detour to the kitchen. My first task was to dry out the roots of the lilies and the mushrooms to make dry roots. When crafting this certain potion, it did not matter what kind of root it is, as long as the roots were dried and completely removed of any moisture.

When I arrived at the kitchen, Gordon was nowhere to be found, guess he had to go to town to buy the supplies and still has not returned.

The kitchen was as bustling and busy as ever. The pots and pans were clanging against each other and the pans were being seared as the prisoners and the actual chefs were preparing for the arrival of Duke Alexander Falk, the Prime Minister.

Before I headed to the back of the kitchen to ask permission from Gordon’s apprentices to use a section of the kitchen for a little practice, I decided to visit the boy with the strange hair… except for the fact that he wasn’t there. The boy was gone, and he seemed to have completely vanished without a trace, and no one knew where he had gone, or how he did it.

I headed to the back of the kitchen where Gordon’s apprentices were. They seemed to be busy chopping away and prepping the ingredients, as if they could not actually cook themselves, and had to wait for Gordon to make the food himself.

I didn’t want to get involved in that matter frankly, since I wanted to make the potions as soon as possible because who knows when my luck will start turning around and the prison will end up being attacked earlier than expected. The 14 Cataclysm was an event that will happen in a couple of months but seeing how this world was showing little differences in random areas, it could happen earlier than I expected. By preparing these potions, I could not only level up, it would make my job easier to level up.

I approached one of the apprentices who looked the least busy.

“Umm, excuse me.”

“Oh, hey there, are you the little girl from yesterday who made that soup?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Thank you for the help yesterday.”

“Your welcome,” I said awkwardly.

“What is it that I can help you with today?”

“Do you have an oven that I can use?”

“An oven huh… I guess you could use the oven over there,” he said as he pointed to a large grey and dusty looking object.

Ehh… why is my luck going down the drain?

“Uhh… okay thank you.”

“No problem, now is there anything else that you need?”

“Yes, can you get some towels, a bucket of water, and some firewood?”

“That should be no issue.”

“Thank you.”

“Eh, no need to thank me, after all, I’m just paying you back for helping us yesterday,” he said as he left to get the things I asked for.

I headed to the large grey and dusty looking object. It was made of smooth, rock-like material, similar to concrete from my previous world. There were lines that showed that it was made of multiple parts, and had holes carefully carved on it to let the smoke and moisture out to prevent anything inside from exploding. The shape of the object was rectangular on the bottom half and the top half was dome-like. It was as if someone was trying to make a pizza oven in this world.

While I was waiting for the apprentice to return with the materials, I was asking for I decided to mark off the areas that needed to be cleaned the most with an x mark. When I looked at fingers, the amount of dust and dirt built up onto the oven was gross. It was as if the oven was abandoned for years and no one bothered to clean it because they did not know what to use it for.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

After marking off the areas that needed to be cleaned, I then headed to the kitchen to look for any citrus fruit. Lemon was ideal, but I could not find any in the kitchen. So, I had to settle for these orange-like fruits. As long as it was a citrus fruit, I could use it for cleaning.

The first thing I did was cut the oranges into slices and then wiped them with both the flesh and the rind all over the places in and on the oven that needed additional cleaning. The acidic nature of the juices were not as effective as lemons and didn’t have that “cleaning” smell, but it was good enough. After slobbering the oven with the citric acid of the oranges I then cut off the flesh of the oranges and threw them into an empty bucket that I also conveniently grabbed.

After I have cut all the fleshes of the oranges off, I then waited 5 minutes before I began using the rind of the oranges to scrub off the juices off the oven. While I was scrubbing the inside of the oven, I saw the apprentice, who asked to help me, returning.

“I returned with the materials!” declared the apprentice as he arrived with all the materials that I asked him to get.

This guy is stronger than he looks, perhaps he should look for other manual labor jobs rather than being a chef.

“Thank you again for grabbing these things.”

“No problem, now where do you want me to drop off these things?”

“Just placed them there for now,” I said as I pointed to a place about a meter left of the oven.

“Anything else you need me to get?”

“N-no not at all,” I said with a bright smile.

“Alrighty then, I’ll be chopping some carrots over there, so just call me over if you need any help,” he said as pointed at an empty table nearby.

“Thank you, but I’m pretty sure I don’t need help with anything else.”

“Well then, good luck to whatever you are doing,” he said as he waved me goodbye.

I continued cleaning the inside of the oven as he left me.

“Now the real work of cleaning begins.” I thought as I began to roll up my imaginary sleeves. I grabbed the towels, which had a rough and cheap texture, and placed in the water. I then squeezed the towel to get rid of additional water and began scrubbing the oven in areas that I wasn’t able to clean with the oranges before cleaning the areas. I was careful not to use too much water because once I lit a fire in the oven it would cause the concrete-like material to start cracking.

After 10 minutes of scrubbing, I was able to clean the oven completely, making it look brand new. The smell of the oranges was also a nice touch.

Many would wonder why I started bothering to clean the dust off the oven made of a concrete-like material because after all, it didn’t matter, but really I didn’t want to breathe in the dust and dirt build-up. Plus, if the dirt and dust got onto the dried roots, it would add impurities to the potions, after all this was no longer a convenient game, it is the real world.

I sat around for an additional 20 minutes doing nothing, while I waited for the oven to dry completely before I decided to place the firewood inside the oven. The firewood was lighter than I thought, it felt like I was carrying a bundle of sticks, rather than chopped pieces of wood.

After I placed half of the firewood supply, I was given into the oven, I cast [Fireball] as sneakily as possible. I had to make sure my surroundings were as clear as possible before I cast that spell because if I was caught the prison guards were free to do whatever with my body. I am a female in a prison where all the guards are male, so the worst always came to mind, especially with what happened to Elizabeth.

I then covered the large hole that allowed me to see within the oven as well as add the firewood and waited for 30 minutes before opening the lid again. When I opened the lid, I felt the intense heat that was building up in the oven blowing onto my face. I swear my skin was turned red from that intensity, but there was no way for me to check.

I placed the roots into the oven near where the lid was. As I placed the roots into the oven, I felt the heat of the oven pressing against my skin, but my hand was not getting burned nor was the heat bothering the nerves in my hand either.

When I placed all the roots inside the oven, I quickly placed the lid and waited patiently for them to dry out. While I was waiting, I made sure to look at the smoke leaving the oven and sniffing for a slight change of the burning smell. I wanted to make as many options as possible after all.

After 8 minutes, I decided to check on the roots in the oven. I opened the lid and that heat once again spilled onto my face, this time within a small fragrance. I poked at the roots, they were hot and dry, perfect for what I needed for the potions. I then carefully grabbed them and placed them onto a clean towel to cool them down. 2 minutes later I managed to get all the roots out of the oven and wait for them to cool down before I stored them back into my inventory pouch.

While they were cooling down, I grabbed the bucket of dirty water and threw it onto the fire. At first, the flames ignited into larger flames from the water forcing the air onto it before the water itself, doused it. When I was finished, I wiped the oven with the remaining towels and stored the roots into my inventory pouch before hiding it. I then gave the dirty orange flesh and rind to the apprentices and headed off the mage tower. Time to make potions…