Thwack! This is it ay? Wait what?
Hesitantly, I opened my eyes. The monstrous magic-carp had its oogly eyes set elsewhere. It wound up its rear and flopped out a tail whip.
Matilda successfully dodged absolutely none of it and was sent spinning in the air before careening and crashing to the ground, but there was no moment of dusting herself off, no assessing the damage, she just got up almost immediately, blood dripping from her busted lip. She wound up her mace for—
The fish unexpectedly barrelled into her knocking her to the ground again. This time she was a little slower to get up, her breathing was deeper, her eye was busted -blood dripping down it, and her elbows and knees were raw.
At this rate she’ll be fish food!
I picked up a rock and struggled to find an opening, as Matilda and the fish scrambled with each other.
Please god… help us out just this one time… alright, well, I mean one more time…
All my strength went into the throw and the rock sailed through the street and before the fish could clamp down on Matilda it connected with a deafening Thud!
“Oh… shh-ugar…”
Matilda fell to the ground with a rock shaped bruise to her head, but at least she fell out of the way before she could be chomped.
The scales with teeth wasn’t giving up though and flopped into position for another attack but before it could sink its teeth into the poor girl.
I knew it was pointless, that unless I scored a critical rock throw, there was no way I was gaining aggro. I threw anyway… the rock thudded into it, a ball of black flashed by and the fish stopped in its tracks.
Huh?
The demonic thing swung round to me and all I could see was its menacing fish eye staring me down, before it charged.
Slap… slap… slap… The fish flopped towards me.
The wound on Matilda’s head sent a searing rage through me.
If I hadn’t been so hasty or unco, she would have been fine, and there was no one else to blame but myself or…
In that moment I could feel nothing but hatred for this thing. My fingers burned in my fist. I was going to kill this thing, and I didn’t give a shit if I got hurt or not! I unsheathed my sword and charged.
“Arrrgh—
‘Da-da-da, duh-duh, dat-dat-duh’.
That same familiar music played in my dreams…
Huh? Wasn’t I in a fight?
As my blurry vision cleared the big grey blur in front of me became clearer, it was smooth like two long thin plastic balloons… of death…
“Oh jeebus!”
I sprung up like a cucumber-cat meme and went to run just as Kae Woo withdrew he sword from deep within the fish’s head.
“Wow…”
I scanned the rest of the fish before letting a forced breath leave me in a sigh and the tension flutter out my shoulders, but then I looked over at—
“Matilda?!”
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She was still sprawled on the cobbled stone street. I staggered over to her. My arms and legs were shaking but still I knelt down to her and felt her neck. It was uncannily warm, smooth and soft. She was quite pretty up close. Her pinched nose and small mouth. A swarm of butterflies invaded my chest and volcanos erupted in my cheeks.
Dud-dud… dud-dud… dud-dud…
“What the hell is going on?” I said, adjusting Matilda on my back before turning to the mercenaries that seemed to have had their heads and feet weighed down with concrete.
“Ahh… I have reached the upper echelons of effort and can go no further.” Torovir replied, leaning heavily upon his staff turn walking stick.
Hmm, I wonder if using proper attacks and such use up stamina?
----------------------------------------
“O Lord of Holy, bring the faithless under your mighty wing, bestow them with your gentle heart and bless them with your healing touch.” A priest of the Holy Temple said as he waved his staff for the eleventieith time.
Divine sparkles of light sprinkled over Kae Woo, the last in the group.
The NPCs staggered after me as we left the temple. There wasn’t much point trying to fight any more fish with the retirement village following after me…
Might as well look for more doable quests.
One foot in front of the another, and somehow I found myself under the now familiar shop sign with a book with a sword crossed over it.
A lion’s yawn escaped me, forcing my eyes to rest.
Soldier on I guess…
…going back to the inn and having a nice afternoon siesta was really tempting until I heard an NPC through the window from the alleyway.
“Oh! Iv only I ‘ad some in-spira’ti-on! Zomething that could in-spire me to make a new never be-fore zeen cuizine!” The voice was a mix of pompous and yappy.
It was an obvious cue for an NPC quest. From the main street, I could see the voice had come from a restaurant, the only restaurant I’d seen in town, it was called the Entrée. The doorbell rang as we entered. Seated by the window, that opened to the alley, was a scruffy looking Pomeranian from the Cynopros race, he was dressed in a chef outfit, white clothes and an inconveniently tall white hat. The Cynopros were a race of demi-canines, the dog part was mostly in the head, fur and tail, otherwise the rest was human, two legs and two hands. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to pat his golden-brown hair, but at the same time I wouldn’t want to be picking that shit out of my food.
“Hi there,” I said, walking over to his table, the NPC mercenaries of mine piled into the restaurant behind me. I gave the furry chef a quick scan before asking, “you have any quests that needs doing?” No need to beat around the bush…
Gizmo.
Cynopros. The NPC is curious about your presence. If you were to fight, it’ll be incredibly tough to defeat.
“You got zum spirit to you veido!” he snapped at me, “I doubt you could help me, though. If I am to join the Royal Kitchen of Celestia I vill need zumthing new, zumthing fresh. Zhow me zumthing I ‘ave never zeen before, and you will be revoarded!”
Sounded simple enough, I scrounged around in my backpack and handed him one of my muesli bars.
“Vhat iz dis?! No! Never zhow me dis again!”
Err ok… that was no good. But I don’t have anything else? Wait maybe that item from cavern boss.
“Vhat iz dis?! Mmm… Dis iz very interesting. Yes, yes, dis vill do!”
Just like that????
You have been rewarded with a [Cooking] recipe and a [Cooking] skill crystal.
Recipe: Tuna Sushi.
Fresh sashimi grade tuna on a roll of sushi rice.
[Would you like to use or learn the recipe?]
Tuna? Hmm… Yeah sure, learn.
A dull ache washed over my head but went away as quickly as it came.
You have learnt the recipe [Tuna Sushi].
“Vhat?! You are zill ‘ere?! Maybe you have zum potential, but you vill need to poove it.”
Gizmo wants you to prove to him that you have what it takes to become a great chef.
Make for him [Tuna Sushi] to receive reward.
Make him a Tuna Sushi? …which means now I just needed to gather the ingredients.
Under the [Recipes] submenu sat the new recipe, along with the ones I uncovered back home.
Recipe: Tuna Sushi.
Fresh sashimi grade tuna on a roll of sushi rice.
Ingredients: Tuna Sashimi, Sushi Rice, Soya Sauce, Wasabi
Where was I supposed to find those items? There was a dull ache in my forehead that just wouldn’t rub out. “Chef Gizmo? Can you supply me with the ingredients?”
There was stink sizzling out of his eye. “Vhat?! You are zill ‘ere?! Maybe you have zum potential, but you vill need to poove it.” He shouted at me.
Right, right. I get the idea, I would have to do the entire quest on my own.
“Err, come on guys…”
The NPCs and I spilled out on to the streets. The soft glow of the waning sun arched across the sky and the clouds. Probably would have looked nice from a hill or something.
Matilda – Trainee Macer is requesting upkeep [1,000g].
Err what?
Shiiit, why didn’t I think of this sooner… brain, you’re letting the team down!
Sure enough, the requests started piling in.
Kae Woo is requesting upkeep [100,000g].
You do not have enough money to pay Kae Woo’s upkeep.
Kae Woo has left your service.
And with that Kae Woo walked off and down some random alleyway. Then followed the fox siblings and then finally Torovir.
Brutus is requesting upkeep [5,000g].
Should I pay Brutus’ fee? It’s a lot, but he does have potential…
I paid Brutus’ 5,000 gold fee, but gods, upkeep sucks…
Avelina is requesting upkeep, but is not within range…
And the messages kept piling in. It seemed if I wasn’t in range to pay upkeep, then mercenaries wouldn’t ditch me straight away.
It’s a small hiccup… a character-building exercise… nothing we can’t overcome, right?
With Matilda and Brutus in tow, we left Gizmo’s restaurant, the Entrée.
“Shopping time…”