43. RRRRRAID Preparations.
7 days until the festival. The Council has declared a recess in order to observe the ramifications of yesterday’s drastic alterations and to review last festival's official Battle Bikini Tournament memory crystals. The Council shall reconvene tomorrow.
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As the group of unclassed gathered again atop watchtower 3, the excitement and anticipation was palpable. The prospect of finally receiving a class was almost too much to bear for the assembled crowd. As for me, I was already annoyed. There was little action in ferrying people back and forth between the base and Floor 2, despite what had happened with Yagmar. Plus, there was an unending stream of questions from my passengers as they kept asking me who, what or where we were raiding. I kept my mouth firmly shut, locked in a frown as we didn’t know who we could actually trust. There was no telling how many gang or Church members were secretly in our midst.
The day passed slowly as we prepared for the raid, each in our own way. I walked to and from Floor 2 over and over again while Pyro taught noobs how and when to use their skills. I barely saw Thwain, as he was busy watching the portal that led to the church. I caught a glimpse of Baz, but I didn’t have time to check in with her to retrieve my supplies or ask her any questions. She didn’t seem like she had time, either, to provide any answers, even if she had any. She was running around, sweat pouring from her face as she lugged around anvils and boxes filled with ingots and scraps.
When I arrived back at base for the fifth or sixth time, I was greeted by a spunky kid with a bowl of soup. He bounced from foot to foot as he babbled excitedly.
“Hey! You’re Théo! I’m Tam! I have soup! Well, now you have soup. I have soup for you. Here!” He held out the bowl to me, the contents repeatedly almost spilling out as he shook with energy. I took the bowl, looking between its contents and the boy in front of me. Tam frowned as he noticed that I wasn’t eating. He gestured wildly at the bowl.
“Charm made it for you! His soups wear off after a few minutes. Longer you wait, less it works. If you’re just gonna look at it and not take a bite and not savor the luscious flavors and not take the wakey wakey juice and run with it, I’ll gladly take a second bowl. I haven’t felt this buzzy since this one time when I kinda, sorta, accidentally mistakenly drank an entire jug of coffee since I thought it would make me tired since my parents only drink it when they’re tired, so I figured it was probably for sleepy time and not to stop you from being sleepy.”
As Tam took a deep breath to keep spouting nonsense, I cut him off by taking a spoonful of soup.
“Ok! See? I’m eating it. Yummmm!” I exaggerated my enjoyment of the admittedly fairly good soup, showing the kid that I was eating the entire bowl. Heat started radiating from my stomach as I ate more and more soup.
The light in Tam’s eyes dimmed like the door of a cupboard door slamming shut. His wide smile turned into a sinister grin. A shadow seemed to come over his face, though the light in the rest of the room remained unchanged. He steepled his fingers and licked his lips maliciously.
“Why do adults always fall for the hyper kid act? You’re too easy,” he said, laughing darkly. “Enjoy the poison.”
The heat in my stomach intensified. I dropped the bowl, pieces scattering across the stone floor as the bowl shattered on impact. My mind started racing through possible solutions. My fingers started trembling and I was unable to keep them still no matter how hard I tried.
“HA! Got emmmmmmm,” Tam shouted, doubling over with a guffaw. He laughed so hard that he fell to one knee, tears leaking from the corner of his eyes. He pointed at me, words coming out between gasps of air and more laughter. “You should… HA! See your face… You really… OW! Piece of… Bowl in my knee… Haaahahaha you really thought I just got you with poison, didn’t you? HAAA!”
Just then, an older man, caked with makeup and wearing an apron, walked out of a room to my right.
“TAM! Did you break another bowl with your pranks? I’ll have you washing dishes until you gain the Dishwasher class.”
“Awww! Come on, Charm! There’s nothing else to do around here.”
The man, Charm, came over and fussed about the mess, dusting me off and dabbing at my pants where soup had splattered with a rag. “See, Tam? You made a mess! Oh, you poor thing. Here, good as new. Tam! Apologize. He looks scared half to death.”
Tam hung his head. “Sorry for pretending to poison you, Théo.”
“And?”
“And I won’t do it again.”
“That’s better. Now, clean this mess and get to washing dishes, young man.”
“But Charm!”
“Dishes! GO!”
“Fiiiiiiine.” Tam grabbed a few pieces of broken bowl, then slinked off into the same room where Charm had come from.
“I’m so sorry, hun. He’s a wild child. He’s going a bit stir crazy here. He used to run messages for the gangs. It’s no small wonder he’s bored helping me with soup, even if it’s magical soup.” Charm’s wide smile highlighted the pink wings drawn at the corner of his eyes as they crinkled. “If you need to top off the buff, come back for some more. It’s on me.” With that, he turned around and walked back into what was apparently a kitchen.
I stood in the middle of the hall, nervous sweat still beading the back of my neck and pooling in my pits. My fingers still hadn’t stopped shaking. The warmth in my stomach had turned to a blazing inferno, but I wasn’t in pain. I was… Energized? It felt like I had drunk a slime pot, but not as intense or instant. Slime pots felt like being filled with electricity. This was… This was a burning need to move, to jump, to run, to attack. I sped up the stairs, taking them two by two as I raced towards the top of my designated watchtower.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I was able to shuttle another three groups to Floor 2 by the time the soup’s effects wore off. I was impressed with the steady stream of energy from the buff as well as its hour-long duration. I ran down to the kitchen again for another bowl of soup.
The kitchen was simple but effective. It was a large open-topped room with a few cooking fires, grills and large cauldrons. Charm, Tam and a dozen others were busily running around, sampling food, flipping meat and stirring pots. As I walked in, a woman in an apron that was composed of more flour than linen passed me a bowl and ordered me to stir. I quickly complied, whisking the pale yellow mixture with gusto until it looked smooth. She snatched the bowl back, poured a bit of batter into a prepared pan and swirled the pan around with practiced turns of her wrist, spreading the mixture evenly and thinly along the hot iron surface. After a moment, the chef flipped the cooked batter in the pan, revealing small pleasant golden brown splotches spread across the cooked side of the batter while the other side cooked to perfection. She strode to a shelf, snatched a slime pot, popped it open, threw in a pinch of salt and a spoonful of a pink powder, along with a piece of what might have been mint. She closed the container and shook it violently, setting it next to a plate that she prepared with another dusting of the pink powder. A minute later, she was rolling up colorful cubed fruit in what she had cooked in the pan. Then, she delicately drizzled half of the modified slime pot’s contents over the prepared dessert before shoving the plate into my hands.
“Slime crêpe. Eat it, then fill out a taste card. Bring an effect card with you and fill it out as you go.”
I blinked at the woman, my mouth hanging open. “I… I’m here for soup?” I half said, half asked.
“You’ll eat what I give you or you won’t show your face in my kitchen again,” the chef growled, her hand gripping a wickedly sharp knife as she peeled some vegetables with amazing speed.
"Yes ma’am!” I agreed, turning around and grabbing two slips of paper from a small table against the wall before exiting the kitchen. I leaned against a wall as I tried to figure out how to grab the “crêpe.” With a shrug, I just scooped it up with my hand and shoved half of it in my mouth, biting down while holding the plate under my chin to catch the falling fruit. My eyes rolled back in my head as sheer bliss filled my entire being. The zing of the slime pot sent shivers down my spine as the sweet pink powder enhanced the taste of the fruit inside the little parcel. The fried batter was supple and buttery and was the perfect vessel to house the slight acidity of the fruit. As I swallowed, a gentle hint of mint kissed the tip of my tongue. I devoured the rest of the crêpe, dreamily salivating at the prospect of another.
I took three steps towards the kitchen before I noticed something wonderful. Not only was the pastry delicious, it also seemed to give me a small jolt of energy and mana. Mana! I turned right the fuck around, racing up the stairs and escorting another two groups to and from Floor 2. My mana stayed full the entire time, not dipping even slightly. After around half an hour, though, the effects wore off. I raced back into the kitchen, looking around frantically. Tam took my two slips of paper and sorted them in the correct pile, nodding at my descriptions of the crêpe’s effects. I looked around but couldn’t find the chef.
“Tam!” I called out. The boy jumped slightly, almost spilling the bowl of flour that he was mixing. I hadn’t even noticed that he had gone back to work.
“What can I do for you, Théo?” He asked, splashing some milk into his bowl without measuring.
“Someone made me a crêpe earlier. Any idea where she went?”
“What did they look like? We’ve been making a bit of everything, really. I just made what Charm called a croquembouche, but I’m pretty sure it was just a cream puff with a superiority complex. You know?”
“No, I really don’t,” I admitted, shaking my head. “She was a little taller than me, black hair, told me to scram or she’d stab me.”
“Oh! Natalie! Yeah, she’s scary when she cooks. She threatened to show me my own tenderloin if I asked her any more questions while she was sautéing onions. I think she’s on break, but she should be back soon. She said something about using a meditation skill to regain mana. I followed her earlier during another break, but she was just smoking on the roof. She’s never gone for more than ten minutes, so she should be back soon. Do you know the difference between stirring and folding? I’ve watched the others stir, but they say they’re folding and that I’m doing it wrong. I think they just want to sound fancy. Charm stirs his soups, he doesn’t fold them. And his soups turn out great. I wonder how different they’d taste if he folded his soups… Have you ever folded a soup?”
I was soon saved from the constant word vomit by chef Natalie walking calmly back into the kitchen.
“Crêpe! I mean, uh, chef!” I yelled out, flagging her down. She gave me a polite little wave.
“How was it?” She asked. “I do hope you liked it.” She smiled at me politely, a large contrast to her earlier intensity.
“It was amazing!” I gushed. “Is there any chance I can get another? It boosted my mana regeneration and cleared my mana fatigue. With a few of those in my back pocket, I’d feel invincible! There are a few things that I’ve been wanting to test, and I can only test them if I’ve got access to your crêpes or something similar. Well, at least at my level of strength. It could speed up my plans by weeks, at the minimum.”
The chef pursed her lips, thinking. “Sure, I could do that. What could you give me in exchange?”
“Eh… Money?” I offered, not sure what kind of payment she was looking for.
She shook her head. “I can make magical bagels. I don’t really need cash right now.”
“Ok, what kinds of things are you looking for?” I asked. If she wanted some rare ingredients from farther up in the Tower, I’d be in a bind.
“Shoes,” she said firmly.
“Shoes? Like, pretty pink ones or…”
“No. Comfy ones. If I’m going to be on my feet all day, I want the comfiest, most practical pair of shoes on the entire floor.”
“Huh…” I thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, I can do that. Be right back.” I ran out of the kitchen and found the nearest clump of slime traps. No boots. I exited the base and made my way to the main base overland, then descended into what was now a cavern fully dedicated to slime traps. I addressed the powerfully built man keeping watch.
“Hey, TG! I need a nice pair of shoes or boots. Any extras?”
Pyro’s brother puffed up his chest. “Alas! As a matter of fact, I do have what you seek, weary traveler. Come, stay a while and witness my power.” He gestured to the slime traps. There were so many set up that there was almost a steady stream of loot orbs falling from the ceiling at any given moment. We chatted for a while about nothing special, watching loot orbs drift to the ground like snowflakes. I picked over the loot pile, taking a pair of boots, a slime pillow and a slime card.
“Need anything?” I asked the large man before I left.
“I do not require any assistance at this very moment. However, I would greatly appreciate your assistance after my shift concludes, in more violent pursuits.”
“Hell yeah! Combat practice?”
“Indeed! I have determined the path to success and require aid in attaining a new threshold of power.”
“Alright, I’ve got you. I’ve got a few side quests to crank out, some training to do, then I’ll be back to help you with your grinding problem.”