*Pshhhhhhhhhhhhh*
Mia watched curiously as Jason swapped between different cooking utensils, poking, flipping, mixing, sifting, peeling the different ingredients.
“I didn’t know you knew how to cook,” she said, staring at the sizzling meat.
“Don’t worry, I actually have no idea what I’m doing,” Jason laughed, flopping over the meat.
“Well, it looks good,” Mia rebutted, pointing to the different things already prepared. Other than the basic set of beef jerky and some dried fruits, Jason bought a bunch of ingredients and a second storage bag. He quickly found out that there were many different ways people used magic in this world. Other than the basic battle spells, there were runes that could be powered by core crystals. These could give different items permanent enchants, like the expansion used on the storage bag, or the cooling magic on the second bag. There were other spells floating around, but Jason decided to get those when he needed them.
“Alright, I think I set up the tent guys!” Aiden called out to the duo. He tapped the tent beside him, to show how sturdy it was, but unfortunately for him the beam next to him popped out of the ground and smacked him in the knee. “AH! DAMN IT!”
Tina rolled her eyes and walked over to the tent, quickly pulling out and replanting the poles. In just a few seconds she properly set up the tent and walked back to her tent.
“Thank you,” Aiden said, walking in after her. Speaking of tents, the one they have is also enchanted. They got two tents, one for Jason, Aiden, and Arlo, and the other for Mia and Tina. “Where did you learn to set up tents so fast?”
However Tina didn’t answer and instead entered the tent. She popped out again and looked over at Mia, then pointed to Jason.
“Okay~!” Mia replied, giving Tina a thumbs up. Tina smiled and dove inside of the tent.
“Is it done yet?” Arlo asked, dumping several more dry sticks next to the grill.
“Almost. Just gotta salt it and keep it cooking for a few more minutes,” Jason said, picking up the salt bag.
“You don’t salt it before you put it on the fire?”
Jason paused and slowly turned towards Arlo as if he just committed 20 war crimes and decimated Jason’s entire family.
“What da hail?! Who salts steak first! It becomes too dry, and ruins da meal. You salt closer to da end, depending on how you cook da meat,” Jason yelled with an accent, slamming his fist onto the foldable table. Arlo raised his hands defensively and took a few steps back.
“Ok, I will keep it in mind, geeze,” he muttered, turning away.
“Thanks for the wood by the way. Can you get some more water from the stream nearby? I’m gonna make some extra pasta to go with the steaks. We gotta feed our guide as well,” he said, pointing to the man who drove them here. The man was sitting next to his horses and biting on some dried food.
“Do you want me to call him over?” Mia asked.
“Yeah, here. You can give him a plate, just make sure he isn’t allergic to anything,” Jason replied, giving Mia two plates of mashed potatoes with steak.
“Damn, that smells pretty good,” Aiden commented as he looked at the food.
“Here you go,” Jason replied by handing him a plate. He took the last portion of meat off of the grill and put them onto the plate as well. Arlo took a plate and Mia took another one to the girl’s tent. Jason cleaned off the tools and threw them back into his bag before finally trying what he made.
“Huh, could use a bit more seasoning. Should probably use less water in the potatoes, and add a bit more butter. Steak could use more salt, and I should add a few more vegetables to-,” Jason muttered, biting into his food.
“Oh my god, bro! The food is fine, why are you over analyzing it so much?” Aiden looked over at Jason and tossed him an empty plate.
“I’m just taking mental notes for next time. There is always room for improvement, and I don’t want to accidentally give you all food poisoning,” Jason replied.
“Dude, the food tasted great. Don’t overthink it so much, it doesn’t have to be perfect,” Aiden told Jason as he walked back to his tent. “Also get some rest, we’re gonna try to wake up early tomorrow and get to the next village and get any food we need before driving again. So don’t stay up too late!”
“Alright, I won’t,” Jason replied, watching Aiden disappear into the tent. The others gave their empty plates back and Jason threw them into the bag with the rest of the tools. He pulled out the conmans accessories and took off his necklace.
“Might as well try it. Synthesis!”
Several accessories disappeared and his necklace began to glow.
[Hero Necklace has gained a new effect]
[Hero Necklace has gained a new effect]
[Hero Necklace effect has been upgraded]
[Hero Necklace has gained a new effect]
.
.
.
.
.
Several notifications popped up and he looked at the necklace as several notifications popped up.
[Hero Necklace
Special Effect: Protection of the Gods, Mana Recovery Up (Lvl.2), Defense Up (Lvl.3), Agility Up (Lvl.1), Attack Up (Lvl.2), Mana Storage Up (Lvl.2)
He also saw a notification that said his synthesis skill leveled up. He looked at the details, but all that changed was that the cost shrank by a bit.
Sweet! I can dispose of more stuff this way. I guess I’ll do the rest of the accessories tomorrow.
Jason smiled and walked inside of the tent. Just as the king told them, the tent was larger on the inside, being the size of a living room. He walked past the sleeping Aiden and Arlo and plopped down into his sleeping bag.
Well, let’s see what tomorrow has in store for us.
----------------------------------------
“Alright, let’s go everyone!” Aiden called out to the gang as he slammed his sword against Arlo’s shield to wake everyone up.
Everyone other than the driver groaned as they got up. Arlo had to be dragged out of the tent as he was still half asleep and trying to ignore Aiden, but eventually they all got back into the carriage and began to drive towards the village.
It was about three hours later that they finally arrived after running out of every bad joke and story possible.
“Alright, let’s go restock, I’ll find an inn. Arlo, Jason, can you guys get more food? Tina, Mia, find… wait, where is Tina?”
Aiden looked around the carriage, but Tina was nowhere in sight.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Tina!” Mia yelled, looking around.
“You guys don’t think that we forgot her at camp, did we?” Jason asked.
“Alright gang… let’s go back,” Aiden tried to say optimistically.
They took another carriage back to camp and started to walk around the dented ground where they set up their tents.
“Tina!” Aiden yelled, walking around the trees.
“Tina!” “Tina!” Jason and Arlo joined him, searching in the bushes. Mia fired off a fireball into the air to try to get Tina’s attention, but there was no response.
“You don’t think she could have been eaten by wolves, right?” Mia worriedly inquired.
“Damn it! Into the forest we go!”
----------------------------------------
“Is everything alright?” the carriage man asked when the four heroes returned. Everyone had a solemn look on their face as they slowly walked past the carriage to find an inn.
“Let’s go find a room, then put up missing person fliers,” Aiden mumbled, opening the door to a building.
“Hey. Where were you guys?” Tina asked from one of the tables in the dark corner of the inn’s tavern.
“Eh?” Jason exclaimed, looking in disbelief at the woman.
“What’s up?” she asked, looking at the squad with a confused expression.
“WHERE THE F*CK WERE YOU?!” “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG WE LOOKED FOR?” “WE THOUGHT YOU DIED TO WOLVES OR SOMETHING!!!” “WE TRAVELED BACK AND FORTH FOR 6 HOURS!!!”
The 4 heroes continued yelling, drawing the attention of everyone in the inn, surprising Tina. She scooted back a bit, and Jason could see her hand tremble a bit.
“I’m just glad you’re ok!” Mia lunged forward and hugged the girl as tightly as she could.
“Well, that’s a whole day wasted,” Arlo grumbled.
“But where were you this whole time?! Why couldn’t we find you?” Aiden asked.
“I… I fell asleep on the carriage,” Tina wheezed out, tapping Mia on the shoulder to get her to let her go.
“But we yelled like 20 times when we arrived!” Jason yelled. Tina didn’t reply, and instead pulled out a pair of earplugs.
“Welp… I’m not awake enough for this. Night,” Jason grumbled, walking off.
“Please let us know next time you’re gonna fall asleep on top of the carriage so that we won’t have to travel back and forth in a panic,” Aiden said, following suit. Arlo ordered a drink and also went to find an empty room while Mia and Tina stayed behind to talk for a while.
And that was the end of the most unproductive day yet. As the narrator, I got nothing more to comment.
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“Finally, it feels like we have been driving for weeks,” Mia let out a sigh of relief and hopped off the carriage.
“Alright, next stop, shopping. We gotta get some outfits for the hot springs. Arlo, go with Jason and find some food to cook. I’ll go get some reservations for us, so spread out and let’s enjoy ourselves,” Aiden said, walking towards the hot springs.
“Alright, you wanna get swim trunks first, or food first?” Arlo asked, looking around the village map.
“Clothes and cooking utensils first, and food later. Gotta make sure that whatever we buy is as fresh as possible. There it is!” Jason replied, pointing to the shop on the map.
“What do you even need? I thought you bought most of the items in the capital.”
“See, I thought I did, but then I forgot like 50 things, and I forgot what I forgot. So I guess we’ll ha-.”
*BOOM*
A loud explosion rang out, sending debris flying in all directions. Arlo raised his shield and covered Jason as a large chunk almost hit him.
“Woah, what the hell was that?” Jason asked, peeking from the side of the shield.
A large carriage began to stroll through the streets as several people wearing torn up clothes jumped from it.
“Plunder my friends! The harvest is bound to be plentiful this time around!” a bandit screamed at the top of the carriage. Others cheered and began to run into every shop, coming out with a bag of money and some random loot.
“Damn it! We gotta help them!” Arlo said, running forward, but Jason grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
“Are you nuts?! Those guys have a bunch of levels and experience! You’ll be torn instantly!” he hissed, pulling Arlo behind a building.
“So you think it’s fine to just watch them hurt others and steal?!” he asked, breaking free from Jason’s grasp.
“No you idiot! See that alleyway? I want you to lure a few of them away while I set up a trap. We’re about to ‘Home Alone’ this sh*t!” Jason replied, pulling out potions.
“What the hell is a bunch of potions gonna do against those guys?”
“Watch and see,” Jason said, running off to the alleyway. Arlo rolled his eyes and ran into the crowd. As one of the men left a building, Arlo pulled back his shield and bashed the man over the head as hard as he could, pushing him back and dropping his loot.
“Huh? The hell was that?” the bandit asked, seemingly unharmed. He looked over at Arlo and smirked. “Hey guys, we got a wanna be ‘hero’ over here. Let’s teach this punk a lesson.”
Arlo took a step back as an arrow whizzed by his face. He saw an archer on the carriage load up another arrow into his crossbow and aim at Arlo.
Well, I got their attention, he thought, running off to the alleyway Jason pointed to.
“Get the runner!” the others yelled and ran towards him. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to be very fast despite being a higher level.
Guess there aren’t any assassins on their team.
However, adults are still adults. He felt a tug on his collar for the second time today and was quickly turned around.
“You little sh*t! You think you can just punch me and run off? Think again!” the man yelled and punched Arlo with all his might.
Shoot, that actually hurts, Arlo thought, as he glanced around for a way to escape. As the man tried to punch him again, Arlo kicked the leg of a nearby stand. With a loud cracking noise the support shattered, and the sign of the stand dropped onto the man, setting Arlo free.
“Damn it! Get him!”
Arlo turned around the corner and ran into the alleyway, only to be met with a dead end.
Sh*t! Where is Jason?!
“Hah, now you have nowhere to run!” the man from before said. A few more men were by his side, rubbing their hands together.
“Hey, he seems to have some expensive items on him. I bet that shield would sell for a pretty penny,” another commented.
“Yeah, how much do we recon? 10 gold?”
As the men walked towards him, Arlo spotted Jason behind the boxes in the alleyway. The men didn’t notice him and seemed to walk past him. That was when the man made his move.
“Eat this!” he yelled, pouring several different liquids onto the men.
A bit earlier.
Jason ran onto the alleyway and looked around. He spotted several boxes.
“Good enough,” he mumbled, opening up his bag and pulling out a single potion.
[Potion of Weakness]
Effect: Weakness (Lvl 4)
Description: Lowers enemies strength.
[Potion of Slowness]
Effect: Slowness (Lvl 4)
Description: Lowers enemies agility.
[Potion of Decay]
Effect: Decay (Lvl 4)
Description: Lowers the enemies mana and health reserves
[Potion of Rusting]
Rusting (Lvl 4)
Description: Lowers enemies defense or force armor and items made of metal to rust.
[Potion of Poison]
Effect: Poison (Lvl 4)
Description: Poisons the enemy.
Jason tried to synthesize potions together as a joke, but when he synthesized three weakness potions together out of curiosity, the level of the effect rose. He condensed every potion with a negative effect together and got these five.
“Damn it! Get him!” a man yelled and Jason heard footsteps approaching him. He ducked behind the cover and saw Arlo run past him, looking around. He waved over to him, but Arlo didn’t seem to notice.
“Hah, now you have nowhere to run!” a man said, walking into the alleyway. Jason readied his potions and mentally prepared himself.
Ok, don’t f*ck this up.
“Hey, he seems to have some expensive items on him. I bet that shield would sell for a pretty penny,” another man said.
“Yeah, how much do we recon? 10 gold?” a third one piped in.
Jason saw the men walk past his hiding place and stood up.
“Eat this!” he yelled, pouring several different liquids onto the men. They turned around and Arlo ran forward, punching the first man with his shield. This time the man was flung back and grumbled in pain.
“Huh?! The hell was that!?” the man yelled.
“*Cough* I feel so much weaker. What kind of potion was that?!” another asked. They turned towards Jason and pulled out their weapons.
“Well, sh*t,” he muttered as he was kicked in the gut and flung across the alleyway.
“These two… were you planning to weaken us with potions and beat us from there? Tough luck, but a few potions won’t *cough*?”
The first man stumbled forward and put a hand to his mouth. He spat out some red liquid and glared at Jason. Before the guy could react, he was slammed into a wall and punched again. A yell was heard from beside him and Jason saw that Arlo was also being restrained by the other two.
Damn, he’s already strong enough to need 2 people holding him back? That’s so cool!
“Do you think we’re some kind of joke?! Do you think you could really beat the pirates of the Black Brigade?! Some brat like you will never defeat me!”
“I know I can’t. But he can,” Jason said, pointing behind the man. He turned around only to be hit with a fireball to the face
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” he shrieked, clutching his face and rolling on the ground. Aiden fired off several more fireballs to free Arlo, and he used rock magic to push the two away.
“Finally! I f*cking found you!” a woman yelled, showing up in an alleyway, glaring at the man on the ground. Several knights popped up behind her and drew their swords.