CWD: OE ~ Four

“Before we decide to make a whole proposal to raise the three of us to Tier two…” In the predawn light, Nacho added another stick to the fire and stood. Sweet smoke filled the air, and the river gurgled over smooth stones next to them. Everyone was awake, and wanted to continue the conversation from the previous night with a clear head. “…let’s talk cash flow. We’re getting ten credits a day from people on average. That means most people are earning one hundred credits before taxes kick in, and ninety credits just isn’t that much once you get to a certain level. It means that they are mostly hunting only until their daily needs are met, then stopping.”

“We need to incentivise growth, without throwing them to the wolves. Is that what you’re saying?” Reuben stood and moved his terrible camping chair in a different spot, as if it would help it be more comfortable. “Too easy. We give people that are already searching after success a lot of money for leveling classes and skills. People with more power die less, and earn more. It’s a win-win. Aggregate success, baby. By being successful, they’ll be more successful in the future.”

“If we're helping Tier zeroes to level, then we should be fine getting some help reaching Tier two,” Brie announced from the treeline. “We have to start preparing for the war with the CrossHumans, and that reminds me… we need to talk to the Brittanys. The last time I spoke to them, they mentioned they might have a lead on a Brewer. If we had a source of Mana in Active Combat, more spell support becomes possible.”

“A Brewer? Why am I just hearing about this now?” Nacho felt like he was frozen in place. If a Brewer existed, that would radically change combat for them going forward.

“You heard all of this before, you just weren't listening.” Brie told him matter of factly. “Before they came to us, the Brittanys had been searching for an alleged Brewer in their area, but then they were attacked by CrossHumans and needed to escape to Armor Mountain for safety. We had this conversation right next to you when you were preparing breakfast, probably a week ago?”

“Can confirm.” Reuben informed Nacho dryly.

“Was this when they were talking about that ghost story the Patrons were trying to foist off on us? The Walking Freds?” Nacho questioned them uneasily. He still wasn't sure what to make of the tall tales of a guild full of necromancers and zombies. There just weren’t enough people with a class like that for it to be a real thing. Probably. “I tend to zone out whenever someone talks about that.”

There were already actual threats to be concerned with. There were two big guilds in the area to consider: the Midnight Fist, and the Credit Machine. There hadn’t been any violence so far, but neither guild had reached out to talk about joining, or even agreed to non-aggression. Nacho wasn’t sure how to approach those other guilds—other than the runners he had sent with letters that went unanswered—and he had enough work to do. Just the idea of all that they still had to accomplish made him dizzy with the possibilities.

“I give up!” Reuben stood, grabbed his chair, and tossed it in the fire hard enough to scatter the coals. “I hate this chair, and I’d rather sit on the ground.”

“Doing alright there, friend?” Nacho chuckled at the seething Healer.

“That’s enough out of you.” Reuben tried to be serious about his order, but the smile twitching just under the surface showed what he really thought of the situation. “I think we've given enough proof that you need to buy that skill… um. What was it—right! Feasting Feats? I think you’ve earned it, and it’ll help out a lot, right?”

Nacho threw his head back and groaned. “Picking out a new Skill is risky and expensive. You have no idea if it’ll be useful, and neither do I. The information on it is lackluster at best, and purposefully misleading at worst. Do we really want to do this right now?”

“Yes!” Both Reuben and Brie agreed at the same time, giving each other a rare smile at the unusual perfect synchronization of their agreements. Reuben sank into the dirt next to the fire. “Dude, if you could increase your food output, we’d get more credits. Then you won’t even need to be ‘embezzling’ from the guild like Old Bill whines about. We have over five thousand people to feed. If it’ll make you feel better, tell us about this Feasting Feats skill one last time.”

“No! I’m so sick of-” Brie was cut off as Nacho launched into an explanation.

“Here’s the thing.” Nacho drew a hand through his hair. “Buying a skill is expensive if you want to buy something that is guaranteed to be useful. As an example of what not to do, Reuben’s chair, or his shovel from last night. He buys the cheap stuff and it’s terrible.”

“Again, I’m being insulted for being frugal when you’re all worried about every little credit. For shame!” Reuben smiled and blinked his eyes at Nacho, pretending to be on the verge of crying.

“Nice try. I know for a fact that your eyes stop producing tears as soon as you hit Tier one.” Nacho continued without missing a beat as Reuben wiped at his own eyes in sudden concern. “If you don’t spend a bunch of credits on a powerful skill, you have to wind up buying a potion that removes the skill. The base cost of a skill-removal potion is a thousand credits. To buy another Skill Slot is five thousand credits the first time around. Then there’s the real reason I’ve been dragging my feet on purchasing another skill… there are Skill Boxes in dungeons that give you Rare skills for reduced cost. So far, we haven’t run into any, but at the rate we’re going, I have high hopes we will.”

“You can’t pin your hopes on that. You’re getting practically no sleep these days.” Brie approached the edge of the fire light with her shovel, and put the fire out with a scoop of wet dirt. “You’ve been needing the Feasting Feats for a while now. We have enough credits, so don't worry about being careful with money. You’ll earn it back, and faster than before.”

“Ugh… as always, your arguments are good, and you know I want it. If it’s gonna be like this, I just can't keep saying no.” Nacho accessed the Store and found the Feasting Feat skill, reading it over one last time as he hoped for the best.

FEASTING FEATS: Have to cook for a battalion? Need to feed an army? This skill will spread out the joy of cooking and feed the multitudes with a limited amount of food, as long as your guests have some credits to spare. Make a little go a long way, through the power of money!

“Do it.” Brie demanded when she saw him still hesitating. “You should’ve bought this a long time ago. You’ve been cooking up a storm, and now you can get something from it.”

“Okay. I’ll buy it, um, right now.” Nacho said the words, but he didn’t really mean them. Not yet. He checked the Store for prices. For the Common, Tier one Feasting Feats Skill, it was four hundred credits. The top-tier, Epic version, would be eight hundred credits just to get it at level zero.

Screaming internally, he spent the credits to buy the best version of it, and spent what it required to bring it to level nineteen before reading the notifications that had popped up.

Wow, CookMeister McMoneybags! You’re finally buying another ability? It took you long enough. Congratulations on taking this important and brave step toward self-improvement. Now, you can inflict your iffy cooking on more people at once! We feel for them, but it’ll be fun to watch!

Would you like to know more about your Feasting Feats ability?

Yes / No.

Nacho chose ‘yes’, glaring at the message.

With the Epic rarity Feasting Feasts, the amount of food you create is multiplied by the level of the skill! As an example, at Level 2, the amount of food is doubled. Already, your HungerCry knives are doubling your yield when you chop, chop! Now, you get even more out of every bite!

We saw you crank this skill up to Level 19, sight unseen! That’s a lot of trust in your Skill selecting skills. Should we see if it paid off? … It did! Now if you make a dozen eggs, you’ll end up with 228 eggcellent edibles.

Here’s your Tier 1 bonus: you can choose up to five places where people can access the food! At the low, low cost of 15% of the sale price, you become a vending machine, and people no longer need to come bother you directly for their food. It’ll just appear in front of them, wherever you specify, within 500 feet.

Caution! As this is meant as a feast for many, and not for one, only a single portion of each meal created through the use of this skill can be eaten by each person!

Note: Hooray! Now you can be shoved into a small room and forced to cook for a whole guild without them ever needing to interact with you! Perhaps you want to keep some of your skill usefulness to yourself, hmm?

Reuben snapped his fingers as he saw Nacho stop staring blankly into the distance. “All right, Nacho. Let’s see your character sheet. I want to see all your slots filled.”

“That’s what she…” Brie cleared her throat and halted her joke. “Yeah, Nacho, let’s see it.”

Nacho showed them his entire Stat Sheet.

Eli ‘Nacho’ Naches

Class: Junior League Chef

Level: 14

Experience Points: 98700 to Level 15!

Current Credits: 6337 (19017 total Dinner Party pool)

Build Type: Balanced, Delayed

Body:

• Fitness: 20
• Metabolic Efficiency: 20

Mind:

• Mental Energy: 20
• Circuit: 20

Satiation:

• Hunger: 100
• Thirst: 100

Health Points: 50

Bonus Physical Damage: 10%

Health Regen: 20% Health Regen/minute

Total Mana Pool: 40

Bonus Spell Damage: 10%

Mana Pool Regen: 20% Mana Regen/minute

Skill Slots (4/4)

• Small Blades (Passive) Level 19: 38% bonus damage on all knife attacks.
  • Tier 1 Enhancement: Your blades can slice from up to 6 inches away from their edge!
    • No Mana, Hydration, or Metabolic Cost
• Ingredient Processing (Active) Level 19: Remove Putrid Mana from monsters up to Level 21.
  • Tier 1 Enhancement: Process ingredients from 15 feet away!
    • Mana Cost = 5%
    • Hydration Cost = 5%
    • Metabolic Cost = 5%
• Cooking Magic (Active) Level 19: Create food that enhances a single stat by 95% of maximum.
  • Tier 1 Enhancement: Throw magic into a food item you cooked from 15 feet away!
    • Mana Cost = 5%
    • Hydration Cost = 5%
    • Metabolic Cost = 5%
• Feasting Feats (Active) Level 19: Cook 19 times the food you’re currently preparing!
  • Tier 1 Enhancement: you can choose up to five places people can use you like a vending machine! At the low, low cost of 15% of the sale price, people no longer need to come bother you directly for their food. It’ll just appear in front of them, wherever you specify, within 500 feet of the food source.
    • Caution! As this is meant as a feast for many, and not for one, only a single portion of each meal created through the use of this skill can be eaten by each person!
    • Mana Cost = 10%
    • Hydration Cost = 10%
    • Metabolic Cost = 10%

Nacho was a little troubled that Feasting Feats used so much Mana, Thirst Points, and Hunger Points. Hopefully that was just when setting the points, and not for each individual portion he made. Even so, he needed to marvel over how much easier it would make his life. Namely: no more constant interruptions from hungry people. If he could cook the same amount of food, but generate nineteen times the portions, then even with losing a fifteen percent tax, this should make him a lot more money. “That’s still a net increase of over sixteen hundred percent.”

“Seems that was totally worth it.” Reuben gleefully announced, “We should lock you in the kitchen with how useful this is gonna be!”

That earned the Healer a sharp look from the cook, even though he knew that Reuben had not been able to see the flavor text that had warned about that exact scenario.

They started walking toward home, discussing what other skills they might want, but Nacho convinced them to wait. He just knew that they’d find a Skill Box in a dungeon eventually, but his arguments weren’t what put an end to the conversation. No, the conversation died because Brie hoisted her weapon and started yelling. “We have people coming. Look alive!”

Their heightened awareness lasted only until a familiar voice reached them, as Taye shouted a happy, “There you are!”

Kristie’s voice followed. “We were so worried! No way would we leave you out here on your own.”

“Hey there, buckos! That was pretty rude of you to make us worry about you like this.” Abby was with them as well, sending a mock glare their way. “Running off without your Brunch Force buddies?”

Everyone had something they wanted to say, but Taye forestalled it with a wave to grab their attention. “Listen, it's good to see you, but we have to get back to Armor Mountain, and stop at the Tortilla Flats on the way. We have some, uh, issues.”