Chapter 65: Level One Cookies

Author's Note: 40% longer chapter today. Enjoy!

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It only took a few minutes for Karbo to get everyone down off the cliff, and a few minutes after that for Spiky and Arthur to get the fear-induced wobbles out of their legs and start the long walk back. Since the combat parts of their crew were back in the city, Karbo walked ahead of them, clearing any dangerous wildlife to make sure the path home was safe and secure.

He also took Lily. At first, she resisted that idea, saying she wasn’t a baby and could walk back just like everyone else. The idea that Ella was probably worried about her didn’t make much difference, either. It was only when Arthur pointed out that riding on Karbo back probably entailed at least several minutes of near supersonic travel before she warmed up to the idea. Arthur hugged her, told her to hang on tight, and then watched her rocket towards safety in Karbo’s arms, squealing in delight as they shot off towards the city.

The trip back home was fairly silent. Everyone seemed to have gotten more camping trip than they were counting on, and the last few hours of waiting left them indifferent to anything but getting home as soon as possible.

Soon enough, they were back at the city, gathering at the gate for one last debrief before everyone filtered home. Ern and Chuck had waited for them near the gate.

“Sorry,” Arthur apologized. “I didn’t know that would happen, but I really apologize for the trip going so badly. I probably should have planned that better. But, yeah, that’s on me. I feel bad about it.”

“Arthur.” Milo put his arm delicately around Arthur’s shoulders before flicking him hard in the forehead. “I feel like you get really into your own head about stuff. Hey, everyone. Raise your hand if you had a good time.”

To the last demon, they all did.

“Everyone ate good food and had a good time. Then there was a minor inconvenience. So while no one is going to say that they didn’t get a little bored at the end there…”

“Me and Ern will. We got to do a rescue mission through a dangerous cave.  That’s actually serious business for our classes. Achievements and all that.”

“Fine. So for two people, this trip was both fun and class-improving. And for the rest of us, we had a good time doing something new and got a great story out of it.”

Arthur glanced around to see the majority of his friends nodding along. He had apparently once again decided there was a disaster where nobody else even saw a problem.

“Well, good. And thanks. So we might camp again?”

“Sure,” Rhodia said. “Although probably in the warm season next time.”

When Arthur got home, Ella was already aggressively feeding Lily, stuffing her full of food as if the girl had been starving at sea for weeks. He immediately got sucked into the same whirlpool of compulsive edible care, getting so full by the time that Ella calmed down from her worry that he wobbled up the stairs.

He laid down for a while before going to sleep, glad to be sleeping in a bed again and considering everything that had happened. It had been a good trip, and even he couldn’t deny that. People had fun. And also had the distinct impression that even if they hadn’t, everyone would have forgiven him instantly. Not even in a fake I-guess-I’ll-live-with-it way, but in a way where they would have just written off the entire experience and never worried about it again.

The city was, after all, a nearly perfect place. That was the biggest weakness of the camping trip for him, actually. Going somewhere else was exciting and fun back on Earth, something to break the monotony of everyday life. But the city was different. There was some kind of comforting aura that enveloped around him, making every moment of his day amazing.

People welcomed and helped him. Merchants cared about him. Even the doctor had been incredibly patient as he tried his home remedies. Even though the wilderness had been full of his friends, he still missed his home in the city.

I know there’s a whole world out there. The Demon World. And I’m probably supposed to see it. But I mostly just want to stay here, with these people, as much as possible. If I never went another place, I think I’d be fine with that.

Arthur didn’t really believe in jinxing things, but he also didn’t want those thoughts to set him on a weird course. He solemnly raised his fist, knocked on the wood frame of his bed, and fell asleep thinking of the shop.

—

“Of course I want cookies. Why wouldn’t I want cookies?”

Sylva was almost offended at Arthur’s caution, but he felt it was necessary.

“Because these aren’t normal cookies. They are sort of… stale? Not stale. Hard. So they can be dunked. And I don’t have them quite right yet.”

“Ooh, prototype cookies.” Sylva preempted any more argument by reaching up and snatching the cookies out of his hand. He couldn’t stop her, of course. She was a mom and a great customer, but none of that did a single thing to nullify the fact that she was also one of the city’s best hunters, supposedly second only to Karbo. Arthur could have no more kept the cookies from her than he could have dodged every drop in a rainstorm.

“Just remember to dunk them. And tell me how they are once you’re done if you can.”

Slyva gave him a thumbs up and went back to her table, where she was planning a dungeon run with two younger, less experienced hunters who had earned a bit of her time by saving an entire stranded camping group. Ern seemed to be holding up to the pressure of that just fine. Chuck, on the other hand, was very obviously trying to keep it together.

It’s weird that my nice rabbit customer is a hero of sorts.

Despite every single one of Arthur’s fears, the cookies were going over just as everyone else had told him they were. It was actively weird to him, but the presence of magic-enhanced ultra-food did almost nothing to make the average demon picky. In the same day, they might eat a steak grilled by a level 30 cook or a sandwich made by a member of their household who specialized in laying brick.

“Good food is good food, Arthur, and most people don’t want to go out for every single cup of tea or bowl of boiled grains.” Ella had said just that morning. “This idea you have that someone is going to eat a perfectly acceptable cookie and then spit it out because the system didn’t make it better is crazy to me. Do you really think mothers don’t make their own children food in this world? And I assure you not every mother has a chef class.”

And so nearly everyone had taken one of his experimental cookies, and seemed to be enjoying them. Even those that didn’t like the cookie itself seemed to like the fresh-cookies smell that filled the shop, and told him so.

“Well, that’s going well.”

“I told you it would. Are you going to make them every day?” Lily sat on her little stool behind the counter, happily munching on a twice-baked cookie.

“Maybe for the first few days, just to get leveling. But after that, I should be able to do one big batch every few days. They keep if you put them in a jar, I think.”

“That’s convenient. But then the shop won’t smell like cookies.”

“I was thinking about that. So I’ll never make masterpieces, right? I get that. But I’m thinking around the part of the skill that focuses on variety. We can stock a bunch of baking stuff like flour, yeast, soda, sugar, chocolate, and preserved fruit. Just a big variety of things that keep. We have the space.”

“Oooh. I get it. You could make something different every day.”

“Exactly. And with my Empathetic Host skill, I think I can make the perfect combination between tea and baked good. Once I get better at it, we might be able to have something baking all the time, so everything is always fresh. And if we make something special, we could offer that as a treat of the day, or else some kind of tea and cookie combo.”

“That is an oddly good idea.” A voice from behind Arthur made him turn. Itela was there, eyeing the new cookies greedily. “Pick my drink. But make sure it has plenty of pep, and give me two of those. It’s been a hard morning for clerics.”

Itela had always been more about speed than specifics, as far as her drinks went. Arthur used Empathetic Host to get a read on her and put together a strong tea with a bit of peach fruit and plenty of cream. Then, he juiced the pep content to almost Eito levels, beyond what Itela probably expected. The normally put-together bird demon apparently wasn’t kidding when she said it had been quite the morning. She looked almost haggard.

“What’s going on? Is someone sick?”

“No. Not anyone new, anyway.” Itela pulled out a stool, accepted her tea, and sat down to drink it. “That’s part of what I’m here to talk to you about. You know our little chronic illness group. Well, you won’t be serving them for a week or so. They’re going on a trip.”

“Wait, all of them? Are they even all healthy enough for that?”

“That’s why I have bags under my eyes, Arthur. No, not all of them are. But with a good enough wagoneer class and enough clerical support, it can be done. And it has to be because the researchers down in the capital make a number of advances in various chronic illnesses every year, which means we make a trip over there every year to see if anything can make a dent in their suffering.” She drooped a little, wearily. “It is, as I have heard you say, a whole thing.”

“I bet.”

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s great. Fantastic, even. But it has a lot of moving pieces, one of which is telling all the people who help them that they’re getting a week off.”

“I mean, I just got back, but… I suppose I could come? If you need me?”

Itela shook her head. “No. You do wonderful work for those people, but you aren’t a cleric, and there’s a limit to how much I can ethically take you away from your shop. You still need to grow and progress yourself, Arthur. Or else I don’t get new and better cookies. And I need those. Especially right now.”

Having delivered the vital part of her message, Itela got down to the serious business of eating and drinking her prizes. Arthur went back to shop stuff. It was nice that he’d have a little bit more of his majicka-budget but he’d miss his patients. And even though he knew Itela had it under control, it was still hard not to worry about them.

“Lily, could you get me the tea experiment rack?”

“Sure. Up to something?”

“We’ll see.”

Lily wheeled in a small cart full of every tea they carried. Arthur felt Empathetic Host and Food Scientist both kick in as he considered the situation. He couldn’t make a specific fresh tea for every person to drink every day on the way to the capital. But he could maybe, just maybe, make something that did a little for all of them.

Pepped teas were out. Several of the patients didn’t tolerate them well. But there were several teas that Medicinal Brewer typically liked working with, and he thumbed a bit of each out onto his flat working space. He started mixing them together, keeping flavor profiles in mind, and eventually came pretty close to the kind of blend he had in mind. Eventually, he felt a small tug on his passive majicka, one he suppressed for the moment. A big expenditure was coming his way soon, and he wanted every bit of energy he could gather for that.

“Arthur, what are you doing?” Itela had tuned into the fact that he was up to something, and eyed him suspiciously.

“Tea stuff. Lily, this one, this one, and this one. As much as we have.”

Lily ran and got the requested teas, and Arthur piled them all into a large bag in the proper proportions, shaking it vigorously to let it blend. There were pounds and pounds of the mixture now, and when he felt the draw on his majicka again, he finally gave it permission to let loose.

It was a massive drain, more than he had ever felt in one go before. Every one of his non-baking skills got involved, doing different mysterious things in the process. As his majicka bottomed out, the notifications started rolling in.

Health Tea (Prepped Ingredient)

You have poured majicka and intent into a blend of teas specifically selected to promote health. The drinker of this tea will have improved health across several metrics having to do with energy, comfort, and general physical endurance.

Each effect is tiny on its own, but together they have an almost minor total power.

This product was created to be stored. It retains most of its efficacy when prepared by a non-tea class holder at a later date.

Whole-body Health (Achievement)

You have used a high percentage of your skills to make a product that improves health of its consumer in an overall way. Your Empathetic Host skill now integrates slightly better with Medicinal Brewer, and products which use both skills are slightly more effective when consumed by a member of a market they are generally (rather than specifically) intended for. Both skills and your class have received a moderate amount of experience.

“Oh, good.” Arthur sat down on a stool Lily fetched for him. “I wasn’t sure that would work. It looks like it did.”

“What did, Arthur? I can’t inspect the tea from over here.”

“It’s a very weak buff to overall health. Anyone can use these leaves to make tea. I thought it would help for the traveling.”

“Oh, Arthur. You didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s not a problem. I wanted to. Although I won’t be using majicka for a few hours. Good gods did that take it out of me.”

Itela walked behind the counter and put a glowing hand over the tea. Her eyes widened slightly. “I should say so. How many things does this tea effect?”

“The description says several. It doesn’t get more exact than that.”

“That means it’s a long list. I’ll absolutely take this, Arthur, and thank you. If anyone complains about underpepped tea, just refer them to me. I’ll do scary cleric things at them.”

After Itela left with the bag of tea, the day settled into a fun sort of normalcy. With all his friends worn out from the camping trip and catching up on their own work, it was a more varied customer base than usual. With their permission, he gave Empathetic Host a workout, getting better results than he ever had before.

“Okay, spill. You must have gotten something for that travel tea.” Lily poked at his side with her finger. “Tell me.”

“Later. I haven’t even looked at it yet. But given how I feel, I think it’s big. I want to take it all in at once.”

And the day wiled on. Eventually, Arthur got his majicka back, doing experiments with it on small batches of baked goods in between making drinks. Nothing worked, at least beyond what his normal baking skill could do. That was fine. He was happy to make level one cookies.

It was almost time to close for the day when his last customer staggered in, looking tired, distressed, and distracted. It didn’t seem like an emergency. A lot of his customers looked that way a lot of the time, for a variety of reasons. So that normally wasn’t a cause for panic.

Arthur panicked anyway. Because for the first time he could remember, Milo looked unhappy.