The sunlight that streamed through the window stabbed into my eyelids, waking me up. Not that it hurt as much as the rest of my head. What the fuck hit me? It felt like someone was actively jabbing a dull icepick into my brain.
Slowly sitting up, I called out to my AI as I rubbed at my face. “What time is it?”
“The time is one fifty-five AM,” The AI responded. That made no sense. If it was so early there would be no sign of the sun, let alone enough for it to wake me up. Unfazed, the AI continued, “Today is Sunday, July twentieth twenty sixty-four.”
“AI, run a check on your real-time clock.” The thought of debugging the AI system magnified the headache. “Also, increase the shade level on the windows and dim the lights.”
“All clock systems functioning within expected parameters. Time is within acceptable margins of all accessible timekeeping servers.” Well, that couldn’t be good. Either something was bright enough to light up the world, or every server was wrong. “Shades in virtual room cannot be lowered by me. Recommend performing the action manually.”
“Virtual room?” I opened my eyes just enough to get a look at the place and realized that I was a fucking moron. Of course, I was logged into Ascent to Aetheria. Was the headache a result of the game? Was it a bug? Wait, the pod and my AI were linked and it had some medical-related functions. Maybe my AI would be able to see what was causing the headache and give me something for it. “I have a hell of a headache. Can you please find the source and maybe give me something for it?”
“Communicating with the onboard medical system. Please wait.”
“Scanning user…” A new voice spoke up. It sounded more robotic and its voice was devoid of all inflection and emotion. “Artificial source found. Scanning logs for origin…Origin found. The system induced a headache in the user in response to the condition Mana Exhaustion. Condition is fading. Will disappear in five minutes real world time.”
Wait, I knew that the system was somehow able to create pain in a player but going so far as to mess with my head to do so seemed a bit excessive. Given that the game didn’t have any option to decrease pain levels, I would just have to avoid whatever had caused it. “Source of Mana Exhaustion and ways to avoid similar issues?”
“Mana Exhaustion is from over-taxing your mana.” My AI spoke up. Likely since the medical questions were done, the medical AI had returned to its passive state. “Reading over your logs and extrapolating from various player accounts, I would recommend not letting your mana drop below ten percent. Twenty percent if you don’t want a headache from Mana Fatigue.”
While that sounded, without some sort of bar or other tool to monitor my stats, I would never know how close I was to that limit. I could keep my status screen up all the time but that would become one hell of a distraction when I enter into any fight. Figuring the AI might have some advice or idea from the various posts it had gone through, I posed the question. “How can I add some sort of status bar to my view? Something that won't get in the way but is always visible and useful.”
It didn’t answer. Instead, three bars showed up at the top left of my vision. The top one was red, followed by one that was blue. Both were full. Below them was a thin bar three-fourths filled with a lime green color. As I focused on the group, information appeared next to each. As one would expect, the top two bars were for my health and my mana respectively. What surprised me was the fact that the third bar was for my experience.
With a glance at my stats, I found that each had risen by one or two points. Likely from the training. As I looked over everything, my headache faded to a dull throb. “Are there any changes you would like done to the new setup?”
While I wanted to say yes and nitpick, I forced myself to look away. To focus on something else so I didn’t fall into a rabbit hole. I took a moment to glance back at the bars momentarily to see if I could use them without being distracted. Yeah, I know. It wasn’t a real test. There wasn’t some random person or creature bearing down on me with a weapon. This was the best I could do until either I sparred with someone or went on an extermination quest again. “It should work for now.”
As I turned in my bed, my stomach gave out a loud growling sound. Given that I had somehow managed to sleep through dinner, it was no wonder the thing was empty. Of course, the question was, would I head downstairs for some food or try to cook something myself?
Who was I kidding? I had no clue how to cook. While this fact would send most people downstairs, it was something I couldn’t risk dealing with later. If my food was inedible then I could go eat downstairs. If not, then I would be able to eat whatever I prepared. Either way, I would get some much-needed practice.
Stepping over to the small kitchen, I took my time going over everything. To see what the room came with as well as what I would need to use from my recently purchased goods. While the place had some soap, running water, and even a well-used sponge, it lacked any other dish. No pots, pans, plates, or even silverware.
As I ran my hand over the various countertops, one of them caught my eye. It was made of a darker stone flecked with red and gold veins. It contrasted with the rest in the fact that it looked way too fancy for the room. It even had a small golden circle embedded in one of the corners. When I ran my thumb over the circle as I tried to get a better look, a notification popped up.
Would you like to use ‘Magical Stove’ for five mana per minute?
Well, that solved my immediate need for a stove. It wouldn’t help when I went out of the city, but it would work for now. Declining the prompt, I turned to the island and debated what to cook. Finally giving up and asking the AI for some advice. “I have no clue what or how to cook. Thoughts?”
“Looking through inventory. Searching archived information. Sorting based on difficulty, taking into account the desire to learn. Recipe found. Error, ingredients missing. Calculating substitutions.”
“What ingredients am I missing?” I had honestly thought I had grabbed everything I would need.
“For the current recipe as well as many others, you are missing bell peppers and olive oil. Would you like me to collate a proper shopping list for you? Just enough to cover all the basic meal ingredients.”
“Sure, but first, breakfast.”
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“Cut up half an onion. Then dice a couple of potatoes and half a pound of either meat.”
“What do you mean by dice?” I asked as I pulled out a cutting board, my knife, and all the specified ingredients.
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I had heard the AI sigh. “Cut each into small cubes about half an inch on each side.” I listened to the AI as I started to cut up the onion. As I went to make the third cut the AI interrupted me. “Have you ever cut an onion before?”
“No, why?” My knife was halfway through the onion as I continued. “Don’t I just have to cut it into pieces?”
“While you can salvage that onion, let's save it for another day. Get out a new onion.” While I was a bit confused by the computer's instructions, I never the less did as I was instructed. The partially cut onion went to the side as I pulled out a new one. “Cut the onion in half then cut off both ends.” I had no clue what I was doing and it showed in my cuts. The tops were fairly thick and likely contained a fair bit of useful onion.
The AI didn’t seem to care. “Make a shallow cut through the top layer of the onion, using it as a spot to pull off the skin.” The knife went halfway through the onion but, hey, I managed to get off the top layers of the onion off. “Take your time to cut half the onion into rounds.” It seemed to realize what it had said and decided to clarify what it meant. “Cut the onion so that you have thin round sections. Each about half an inch or so thick.”
While I didn’t know what a round was at first, the instruction made more sense after the AI explained it. As soon as I managed to cut the first half of the onion, the AI spoke up. “As if cutting a pie, cut the rounds into sixths. Then put the whole lot to the side.” If cooking was this easy, why did no one do it? Oh, that’s right, no one had the ingredients to do so. Ah well. At least I get to experience it, even if it was only in a video game.
“What now?” I asked as I slid the onions to one side.
“Cut the potatoes into cubes about half an inch on a side.” As I got to work, the AI didn’t stop me which probably meant I was doing a passable job. “Place them into your skillet and put it onto the stove.” To my surprise, the system message appeared as I placed the pan on the stove. It seemed that I didn’t have to touch the symbol to turn the thing on.
As soon as I accepted the prompt I felt some sort of tether form between me and the stove. Until that moment, I didn’t notice the energy that now flowed through me. It felt as natural as blood. Flowing up and down my limbs before it returned to the spot behind my heart. As soon as the connection was formed, some of the energy broke off and flowed down it. Leaving my control as it did so.
There was no visible change to the counter but I could suddenly feel the heat coming off of it. “Your heat is too high. Please turn it down.” My AI said, which was all well and good but how in the hell was I supposed to do that? Picking up the pan did nothing. The flow of mana didn’t even stop. While I was a bit worried about my breakfast burning, I was more worried about the stove draining all my mana away.
“Heart rate and actions indicate alarm and confusion. Looking for solution. Interface previously located. Likelihood of it being the solution? Unknown.” What the hell was the AI going on about now? What interface have I seen for this damn thing? Wait, when did the prompts appear? There was the time I placed the pan down but that was not the first time. No, it appeared when I touched the circle. Quickly tapping it again, I sighed in relief as a screen hovered to the side of the counter.
Stove Top Controls
220 C
Current Temperature
428 F
Down
Temperature Control
Up
OFF
Status
ON
Well, that was simple, if a bit odd. Then again what else could the developers have done? Add knobs to the front of the counter. That solution wouldn’t have been realistic given the magical nature of the device. What would the knob even control? Anyway, I tapped the down button a few times. Each of which decreased the temperature by five degrees. I kept pressing the button until the AI spoke up. “That should be good. While the potatoes are cooking, cut up the meat to about the same size.”
From time to time, I glanced up from the meat to the blue bar. It was dropping steadily but, from what I could see, it wouldn’t deplete for at least twenty minutes. I just hoped that was enough time. “Push the potatoes to the side and throw the meat into the pan. As soon as the meat is browned, add the onion. Once the onions are nearly translucent, mix everything together. Add some pepper for flavor as you go.”
The moment the meat hit the pan, it started to lightly sizzle. The juices and fat melted as the meat cooked. I moved the meat around enough that none of it burned while ignoring the sizzling juices that pupped up and burned my skin. Based on my health bar, the burns were not doing much damage anyway.
After what felt like forever, the meat was finally cooked. In a rush, I poured the cut-up half of the onion into the pan. With quick work, I mixed it into the meat and let it sit as I pulled out the pouch of pepper. Thankfully the merchant had preground pepper as I didn’t think any of them sold something like a grinder. Hell, they probably used something like a mortar to grind it all down.
The large pinch I added mixed into the liquid at the bottom of the pan and coated a few pieces as they cooked. Then I just resumed stirring, stirring, and more stirring. Growing more and more annoyed as I waited for the onions to finally change color. When they finally did, it wasn’t to the transparent color I had been told to look for. Most had browned edges and looked a bit dry.
Giving up on waiting any longer, I mixed the potatoes in. “What next?” I asked as I stirred in an attempt to keep the meal from burning further.
“It is done, though you might want to try it first. Depending on how fresh that pepper was, you might want to add some sort of sauce.” It couldn’t be that bad. I mean, I know that most of the pepper I used in real life to add flavor to the prepackaged meals was ancient, but fresh couldn’t be that much stronger, Right? Turning off the stove, I felt the mana thread snap as the interface disappeared.
Now that the food was less likely to burn, I took my first bite of breakfast and nearly spit it out. It had one hell of a kick. Enough that it had me running to scoop water into my mouth from the faucet as fast as I could. As I greedily sucked down as much water as I could to wash out the taste, I contemplated tossing the whole meal into the trash and going to get something made downstairs.
My AI stopped me as I lifted my head out of the sink. “Try adding one of the bottles of sauce to it. The liquid should cut down on the flavor and mellow it a bit.”
I hesitated for a few moments as I contemplated the AI’s suggestion. It wasn’t like they were expensive or anything. But would it solve the issue because I would hate to waste something if I didn’t have to? Then again, what if it did make the meal palatable? It would save me quite a bit in ingredients as well as allow me to eat my first home-cooked meal.
That fact clinched it for me. I would do whatever it took for me to be able to eat this meal. Pouring a bottle of ‘Secret Family Sauce’ into the pan, I stirred the entire thing together. The residual heat in the pan was enough to allow the thick liquid to flow more easily as it mixed in. Everything in the pan seemed to absorb the liquid. Slowly changing from their colors to something a bit darker and somehow becoming a bit more appealing to the eye.
As soon as the liquid heated up enough, it started to release a thin, nearly transparent, pillar of steam. A pillar that, as soon as it hit my nose, made my mouth water. Unable to hold myself back, I switched to a spoon and dug in.
The contents of the pan disappeared between one thought and the next. When my head dipped to lick at the pan, some of the liquid globbed onto my nose. The sensation was enough to shake me out of whatever that was. “What the…”I asked while I looked around to see if anyone noticed. The lack of anyone else in my room made me happy that the rooms were singles and not bunk rooms or something.
Quickly, I moved all of my dishes to the sink and started to clean everything as I mentally wracked my brain to recall what the meal had tasted like. It was like metaphorically slamming my head into a wall as I tried to recall anything. Eventually, I gave up. Choosing instead to promise that I would try and make it again another day when I wasn’t starving. With everything done and put away, I stepped out of the room and made my way to the main floor.