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Shadow Agency
S2 - Chapter 18 – Magical Food

S2 - Chapter 18 – Magical Food

I was greeted by the serious-faced Chef Mustafa and just behind him was Esteban, looking at me nervously.

“When I found out young Esteban lived in your building, I invited him to join us. I hope you don’t mind, but his talent is . . . well, he will undoubtedly surpass me someday,” Chef Mustafa said somewhere between excited and annoyed, brushing past me and walking into the kitchen before I could disagree. “Don’t just stand there. We have work to do.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about letting Esteban into my apartment. If he continued to compare me with me . . . well, it wouldn’t be good for my cover. Still, I motioned him inside and closed the door behind him.

When I turned back to the kitchen, Chef Mustafa was going through all the cupboards, pantry, and cold box, inspecting ingredients at random. Without looking up from his inspection, he asked, “Did you infuse everything with mana?”

“I did,” I answered, closing the door behind Esteban, who was looking around my apartment excitedly.

“All of it?” Chef Mustafa asked again.

I didn’t understand why he sounded so surprised. “Yes, why?”

Chef Mustafa put an apple back into the cold box and turned to face me. “I thought at most you would have infused maybe a third of the ingredients. Your mana capacity or control must be very high to have infused all the ingredients. It also means we will need to be much more careful using them as they will be that much more volatile. Have you cooked anything yet with Magical Cooking?” Mustafa asked, his eyes fixed on the remains of a loaf of bread. Moving to inspect it before I could even answer.

“That loaf of bread and some eggs. I wanted to try it but didn’t feel comfortable doing more than that,” I answered.

Chef Mustafa picked up the loaf, bringing it to his nose he breathed in deeply. Letting the breath out slowly, he broke off a small piece and popped it into his mouth, chewing it slowly. “Not bad. A very simple bread. Mana rich, but no actual magic effect woven into it. I imagine this left you feeling energetic most of the day, yes?”

I nodded. I hadn’t experimented much with Magical Cooking since I learned the skill. I was being careful. I knew it could be volatile and I didn’t want to blow up my apartment or possibly the apartment building, the latter of which might have killed me as well as Esteban and Al.

Mustafa nodded once. “Good, then you have been careful and mostly as safe as you could be without supervision. The only art more volatile than Magical Cooking is Magical Alchemy. Today, we’ll be cooking a great many dishes to see where your talent in Magical Cooking lies.”

I furrowed my brow and asked, “What does that mean?”

“Magical Cooking can have many different effects. Take Esteban here for an example. His talent lies in growth. We do not yet know exactly what aspect of growth, but we do know it is growth,” Chef Mustafa answered.

“What does that mean? I mean, what could his growth do?” I asked.

Chef Mustafa grinned. “It could help you grow your status faster. It could help you grow your skills faster. He might be able to use it to slow the ageing process, essentially slowing your growth. There is even a small chance he will be able to do all of those things and more. We just do not know yet because he is still learning what he can and cannot do. It will be easier once he has gained his attunement and learns manipulation. For now, he needs to keep practising, which is why I decided to invite him to join us. His gift is too precious to not give everything to help it grow. I will reimburse you for the ingredients this time. Next time, he will bring his own ingredients. It will be better if they are infused with his mana anyway.”

I was beyond happy for my friend. His Magical Cooking would make him valuable. Someday, kin will pay untold amounts of money to him for his food. I would pay untold amounts of money.

Chef Mustafa clapped his hands together, “First, we find out where your talent lies.”

“And how do we do that?” I asked, excited to get started.

“You will need to cook a piece of beast meat, a vegetable, a fruit, and a grain. They all need to be mana infused. Hopefully, one of them will tell us where your talent lies. If not, we move on to the next dish and the next after that. So, pick a starting point and begin,” Chef Mustafa instructed, then quickly added, “Oh, and no seasoning and only a little non-mana infused cooking oil, understood?”

“Yes, chef,” I replied.

“Good,” Chef Mustafa said, moving around the large butcher’s block counter and sitting on one of the bar stools. He motioned to the other and said, “Esteban, sit with me for now. Hopefully, this will go quickly and you two can start working together.”

“Yes, Chef, Esteban replied. He wheezed as he climbed into the open seat and watched me work.

I started by simply lighting my stove and tossing in a couple logs. I placed my magical skillet on the hot plate and got a gasp.

“Where did you get that?” Chef Mustafa demanded, standing from his chair abruptly.

“You like it?” I asked. I glanced from the Chef to Esteban. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Esteban, but I didn’t want to put him in any danger. My story about where I got the skill stone was already flimsy, no sense making it worse, “I got it from the same place I got the other thing we talked about.”

Chef Mustafa moved in to examine the cast iron skillet and the engraved runes that cover it. “Do you know how to use it?”

“Not exactly,” I answered.

The chef looked at me, his mouth slightly agape. He quickly mastered his expression before addressing me again, “I don’t even know where to begin. Okay, for now, set this pan aside. I . . . I am not sure if this will interfere with your talent or not. I will show you how to use it once I’m confident you won’t blow up me or the kitchen.”

“Yes, chef,” I answered, moving the magical skillet aside and then pulling out a standard cast iron skillet from one of my cabinets. It was old and not in great condition, but it would suffice. I put it on the hot plate to warm then checked my fire underneath. The logs were burning merrily now. It wouldn’t take long for the pan to heat up.

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I poured a dollop of oil into the pan to start warming. Then I moved over to the cold box and started collecting the items the chef wanted me to prepare. I took a piece of flying beast breast meat and set it on a plate near the stove. I put a couple carrots and a handful of strawberries on the counter. Then I grabbed the sack of rice from my pantry and set it out. With my ingredients out, I gathered the rest of my tools. A cutting board, a chef’s knife, a measuring cup, and a small pot.

While I was busy moving around the kitchen, collecting the supplies I needed, I listened as Chef Mustafa and Esteban talked.

“What was that skillet?” Esteban asked.

Chef answered, “It is a magical skillet. A very good one from what I could see.”

“How does that help?” Esteban asked.

Chef was happy to explain, telling him things even I didn’t know. “It is an enchanted tool for cooking. A trained Magical Chef with that tool and the knowledge to use it could make such wonders. As you know, for food to be magical, it must be infused. The more ingredients you infuse, the more magical the final product becomes. Now, as you prepare the food, you need to regularly apply mana to your tools, pans, spatulas, etcetera. This helps to bring out the . . . flavour of your magic and the magic the infused ingredients were prepared with. Over time, these tools deteriorate and break down, oftentimes detrimentally changing the magical flavour of whatever you are cooking. A good magical tool, like that skillet, prevents that breakdown from occurring. It can also bring out more flavour . . . more magic.”

Esteban sounded confused when he asked, “But wouldn’t that make the results easier to determine?”

Chef Mustafa hummed, “Indeed it might. But it also might have a detrimental effect. Currently, neither you, nor he, knows how to consciously add a magical effect to the food you are preparing. With that tool, he might unknowingly add an effect that could harm us. Remember, not all magical cooking is intended to be friendly. I know of one chef who’s Magical Cooking talent lies in cooking with poisonous and toxic ingredients. He prepares foods that are guaranteed to raise Constitution, Stamina, Toughness, Perception, and Willpower with a single dish . . . assuming you survive the meal. Over the years, I know this Chef has learned to control just how . . . eh . . . potent his meals are. Still, there are adventurers who pay a great deal of coin to be able to try their luck.”

“Do you think this might be toxic because of his Shadow Attunement?” Esteban whispered cautiously, causing me a little pain to hear him question it.

“No, shadows aren’t toxic. They aren’t even evil,” Chef Mustafa said with a laugh. “No, with a shadow attunement, it might improve Stealth or your ability to Hide. Something those with scout-type classes greatly appreciate. But it can also improve Perception, enhance your ability to see in the dark or low light. Many lair hunters like shadow-attuned food for this reason. But again, Mister Belov isn’t just working with Shadow. From what the dean tells me, he has a strong affinity to Light as well. I have no idea what the combination of the two do. Hence, we test and see what happens.”

It was interesting to listen while I cooked, but eventually, I needed to ignore their conversation and focus on cooking. I pounded the flying beast breast flat to help it cook more evenly before laying the meat in the pan to sizzle. I kept a close eye on the sizzling meat, checking the underside regularly while I pushed mana through my spatula and into the meat and pan at a regular interval, reinforcing the boundaries that held the mana inside the ingredient. The goal was to let as little mana as possible escape from the meat. Unfortunately, it was inevitable that some would escape, but I thought I did well enough. Eventually, I flipped the meat and let the other side brown. Three minutes later it was equally browned, and I pulled the pan from the burner and set it aside to let the meat rest. While the meat rested and the pan cooled, I filled a pot with water and put it on the stove to boil.

“Not bad technique. Why did you pound the meat?” Chef Mustafa asked.

“I wanted the meat to cook evenly,” I answered absentmindedly as I started dicing my carrots, getting them ready to start next. As soon as the carrots were ready, I moved the beast meat from the pan to a clean plate and served it to the waiting Chef. It took me a moment to realise I hadn’t given him any silverware and quickly corrected my oversight.

Chef Mustafa smiled and accepted the knife and fork. “When trying someone's magical cooking for the first time, eating as little as possible is safest.” He then proceeded to slice the meat into thin strips and then small chunks until eventually he stabbed a chunk no bigger than the tip of my pinky and ate it. He chewed slowly and then swallowed. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he breathed out, a few sparks filling the air. “Energy. Hoowah. You packed a lot of mana into that food. I felt an immediate rush of mana that was more than I should have gotten from that small bite.”

I furrowed my brow and picked up a small chunk and ate it. There was a tiny rush of energy but that was it.

Esteban looked nervous as he stole a small chunk then mimicked Chef Mustafa as he breathed out sparks. “My goodness. How much mana did you pack into this meat before you cooked it? That’s amazing.”

I blinked in surprise. “Is it really that much? It didn’t feel like a lot to me.”

“Then you must have very large mana reserves. Anyway, while the energy you packed in was great and would make any affinity user pleased to eat it for the mana recovery alone, I didn’t detect additional magical flavour in the meat. Don’t take it to heart, it doesn’t mean anything. Just keep preparing your food,” Chef Mustafa instructed.

The rice had similar energy restorative quality but ultimately didn’t reflect any other benefit. I used a small frying pan for my diced and mashed strawberries.

“Sweet and tasty. Energetic to be sure, but still, nothing else,” Chef Mustafa advised after tasting my vegetable choice.

I decided to sauté my carrots over a lower heat in the cast iron skillet that came with my apartment. It required more attention but cooked the carrots to a much better tenderness while preserving the flavour.

The sizzling sound of carrots hitting the hot skillet was music to my ears. I only wished I could add some butter, salt, and parsley for flavour. I could almost taste it without even cooking. After about ten minutes, the carrots were perfectly caramelised and tender.

I placed them in a shallow bowl and began cleaning up the kitchen, washing dishes, wiping down countertops, and readying my workspace for Chef Mustafa's next dish.

“Mmm,” Chef Mustafa hummed, smiling slightly. “Very good carrots for such a simple preparation. Energetic again . . . but there is something else in there too. It’s not harmful . . . ah, Perception based. Yes, I see more clearly now.” He paused and took a deep breath in, “And yes, I smell more of the foods in your pantry.” He paused again and took another bite of the carrots, “The taste is also amplified.” Then he frowned and I worried. “How is there more energy in this than in everything else you prepared? I wonder, perhaps you also have an energy recovery bonus. We will need to cook a lot more to find out.”

“Can it help permanently increase Perception?” I asked.

Unfortunately, Chef Mustafa shrugged and laughed. “Who knows? Maybe someday. But it does give us a starting point. Everything you prepare in magical cooking should include vegetables. If you prepare beast meat, add celery, onion, peppers, leaks, or something that can soak its flavouring into the meat and add your magic to it. Same for rice and bread. Fruits will be more difficult for you to work with. Otherwise, find ways to incorporate vegetables into almost everything you prepare. Understood?”

I nodded, “Yes, chef.”

“Good. Esteban, you’re up, let’s try some sea beast meat,” Chef Mustafa said, giving me a break. Esteban cooked a piece of flying beast meat, similar to the one I just prepared, but with more seasoning and a cream sauce to pour over it. The flavour was much more refined than I remembered Esteban’s cooking being. It also left me feeling like I needed to do something, anything related to one of my skills.

Chef Mustafa seemed pleased and offered a couple criticisms before it was my turn again. And that was how we spent the rest of the afternoon, taking turns cooking and getting advice.