CWD: GA ~ Thirty-Four

Crave’s party rotated in shifts to grab venison steaks and pancakes before going out to kill for credits. Everyone who ate both dishes was given the option to upgrade their stats, and most chose Fitness for ultimate kill potential. They all commented on the food, saying it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. Having topped off their stats and selecting their meal-generated buffs, they went into the caves, taking their rudeness with them.

Nacho stayed in the kitchen without complaint and started on the next batch. He had to eat and drink periodically while he cooked to keep his Hunger and Thirst Points up. By the end of his first day, he was exhausted. He found a nice place by the wood-fire stove, a little dry niche, where his chain would stretch, and settled on an old wooden chair.

He leaned back in the seat, eyes closed, and it felt good to get off his feet for a second. He couldn’t forget about the chains, nor about the fact that his friends were coming, but he managed to get somewhat comfortable in his little home away from home regardless. Crave had given him fifty credits for cooking supplies, which was substantially more than Nacho needed, but he was going to milk this opportunity for all it was worth.

The cook could charge Crave’s people directly for the meals, since it was built into the gaming component. He didn’t tell them he could’ve given them their food for free. Nope. Six credits, at a minimum, for a sit-down meal for three. From the work of processing the food, then selling it, as well as Crave’s gift of fifty credits, Nacho already had a hundred and four credits to play with—though he wasn’t going to be using that little nest egg without dire need. Instead, he’d claim poverty and milk these mother lovers for more.

Checking his Stat Sheet, he still wasn’t in range to send a credit transfer to his friends. They remained alive, but not close. Good. Nacho needed to get out of his chains before they arrived. There were three keys, one each held by Crave, Hogan, and Whitney. The trick was going to be snagging one without getting caught.

Speaking of Crave, the eventual Guild Master sauntered into the kitchen, grabbed a chair from the central table, and pulled it up to where Nacho was snoozing. “Nice trick with the buffs, and your cooking isn’t bad. What else do you need?”

Nacho didn’t open his eyes. He was too tired, and he wanted to let Crave know he wasn’t concerned about what the guy thought of him. Nacho was just a Common cook doing a job. “I’ll need a recipe for the chicken-bats, otherwise I can’t cook them. There’s an info pack in the Store on chicken related monsters, and it comes with a recipe. But there’s also a Tier one recipe that would give me more variety. I’m thinking your people are going to get sick of my deer-pancake combo pretty quick.”

“Let me look at the Store.” Crave’s eyes flashed. “Patrons! The Tier one recipe book is pricey. Four hundred credits…? I don’t understand the differences between the Tiers. Are they like levels? How big of a deal are they, really? My intuition makes me think there’s a catch there.”

“I have no idea,” Nacho only partially lied, not needing to feign exhaustion. “I’m still figuring this stuff out, just like you. But I do know that food is important, which is why I went the Satiation Player route.”

“How did you know that?”

Nacho had to be careful, so he opened his eyes to ensure he saw the entire situation. “My boon gave me certain pieces of information, but at the end of the day, people have to eat, you know? If I can become important for cooking, my chances of survival go up. I mean, that’s why you abducted me instead of killing me, right?”

“Your deer meat smelled a lot better than ours.” Crave smiled and sat forward, steepling his fingers. “I’m serious about moving beyond the crime thing. At this point, if the Chaos Coop works out, and if we can keep getting credits fast, I won’t be forced to keep doing the things I’ve had to do up to this point. I found something in the Store about guilds. I’m still doing research, but I think that’s the route I want to take. It’s best for people to work together because they want to, not because they are forced to.”

At that point, Nacho recognized the reasonable man he’d joined up with in his previous game. It had always seemed strange that Crave had started out as a murderer. Then again, everyone had their own unique way of reacting to Armageddon.

“Coworkers are better than slaves, I agree. Listen, Rich-” Crave frowned in anger, so Nacho hastily backtracked. “Listen, Crave, if you can keep me in credits and working, and if I can continue to eat and cook, this will work out fine.”

He jiggled the length of chain. “But I would like my freedom. I won’t run.”

Ah, the lies came so easily after spending three years as an Assassin. Crave shook his head. “Listen, Eli-”

“Nacho. Isn’t getting corrected fun?”

The soon-to-be master of the Final Victory Guild nodded in wry acknowledgement. “Nacho. I’m going to drop a thousand credits into you, because if I can keep my troops happy with a cook, and if you can add buffs to the food, this will go a long way to convincing people to join my guild. I don’t quite have all the details, and the contract can be a little beefy, but I think there are definite benefits for us all to join together.”

Nacho didn’t let his disappointment show. He’d hoped to get away before Crave created his guild. He’d have to adjust his timetable somehow. However, a thousand free credits? Yes, please. He was ready to take advantage of that. “A thousand credits? You have a thousand credits to burn on me.”

Crave raised a finger. “Not burn. An investment, and I want to watch you spend them. I want to be the first person to taste your new recipe. I’ll have a chicken-bat brought to you, but first, let’s buy the cookbook that costs four hundred credits.”

A second later, the System was cheerfully asking him if he wanted to accept a transfer.

Hello, Satiation Player! Looks like someone wants to give you a whole bunch of credits. Will you accept four hundred credits from this assassin in black?

“That would be a whole lotta yeah.” Nacho promptly opened the Store and bought Colonel White Beard’s All Things Chicken and Breakfast Happiness. The book appeared in a Storage Slot, and he instantly pulled it out and waved it for Crave to see. “There you have it. Everyone loves Colonel White Beard.”

“I hope so,” Crave rumbled dangerously, “for your sake.”

Nacho took a minute to peruse the book. There was a quick introduction to the livestock ideal of a chicken and how to pluck them, clean them, and chop them into the kind of chicken parts people wanted to put inside themselves.

Crave watched him carefully. “I need to know I didn’t just throw away four hundred credits. Show me something.”

“Give me a second.” Nacho found a way to merge Colonel White Beard’s All Things Chicken and Breakfast Happiness into his Aria. Then he turned to the breakfast section—which was filled with Chicken and Biscuits, Chicken and Waffles, and at least one spicy southwest chicken omelet. Better yet, there was an Intro to Omelets section.

In the Soups and Stews section was a chicken noodle soup recipe that looked tasty, and under Entrees he discovered a fried chicken recipe, fajitas, and a chicken tikka masala, as well as a sesame chicken that looked very much like something found at any Chinese food restaurant.

Nacho let out a low whistle. “This is an example of the System being a pain in the butt. Last time, I bought a single recipe for two hundred credits, but I could’ve gotten a lot more by buying the Tier one cookbook, which actually only contains one Tier one recipe, Poulette a l'Orange. However, I can start with this. I should be able to do some things with eggs and with chicken, and what’s this? A scone recipe?”

Crave made a face. “I hate scones. They reek of all things British. But this is good. I’m hoping if you can do scones, you can do biscuits. Better make sure we have lots of honey for that, though.”

An excited grin lit up his handsome face, and for a second, it felt like old times, with just the two of them figuring stuff out. Happily, this scenario would end in a delicious meal, and not with Nacho murdering someone in another guild or backstabbing a monster in some deep dungeon somewhere.

“Honey, yeah.” Nacho tapped his chin. “Now, let’s talk about my skills. If I’m going to be processing chicken, I’ll need to upgrade my cutting abilities. Right now, I’m limited to low-level ingredients. If you bring me something tasty, I won’t be able to process out the Putrid Mana, which is what makes people sick. Lastly, I’m only second level when it comes to my cooking Magic. That’s what gives me the ability to add buffs to stats. We definitely want to improve that.”

Crave’s frown deepened with every word. He’d claimed he was willing to spend a thousand credits, and he had thirteen players risking their butts to collect that cash, but thinking about spending money and actually seeing the money go out the door were two very different things.

A sudden burst of clashing rose from below, and it sounded like trouble. Crave sprang to his feet and whirled away. “Just make a list of what you would like to upgrade. Meanwhile, I’ll start sending chicken-bats for you to process. I’m not kidding about the biscuits.”

Crave left Nacho’s kitchen—gone in an instant. Was that Shadow Speed at work? The man had done very well in the Evaluation; better than Nacho’s first attempt, at least. Nacho used one of his own credits to buy a pad and pencil combo, then sketched a matrix of which skills he wanted to upgrade.

The prospective Guild Master had promised him six hundred more credits, and for a second, Nacho felt kinda bad. Then he remembered Jimmy taking one of Suzy’s arrows in the chest. All of his credits had transferred over to Crave’s party, as well as those for the kill itself.

No, Crave was being foolish to trust Nacho. Then again, Crave did have him chained in the kitchen, so how much was he really trusting him?

Eli 'Nacho' Naches

Class: Common cook

Level: 0

Experience Points: 100 to Level 1!

Current Credits: 103 (103 total Dinner Party pool) No Transfers Possible Due to Distance Parameter!

Build Type: Balanced, Delayed

Body:

• Fitness: 10
• Metabolic efficiency: 10

Mind:

• Mental energy: 10
• Circuit: 10

Satiation:

• Hunger: 100
• Thirst: 100

Total Health Points: 30

Bonus Physical Damage: 5%

Bonus Spell Damage: 5%

Skill Slots (3/4)

• Small Blades (Passive) Level 1: 2% bonus damage on all knife attacks
  • No Mana, Hydration, or Metabolic Cost
• Ingredient Processing (Active) Level 4: Remove Putrid Mana from monsters up to Level 6
  • Mana Cost = 5%
  • Hydration Cost = 5%
  • Metabolic Cost = 5%
• cooking Magic (Active) Level 1: cook food that enhances a single stat by 5% of maximum
  • Mana Cost = 5%
  • Hydration Cost = 5%
  • Metabolic Cost = 5%
• Open slot

Nacho spent a little time on math. To boost his Small Blades and his cooking Magic up to fourth level, it would take a total of three hundred and sixty credits: eighty to get to second, one hundred and twenty to get to third, and one hundred and sixty to get to fourth.

Spending other people’s credits was a lot more fun than spending his own.

To get a single Skill to fifth level would cost one hundred credits. Really, he could get two of his other Skills up to fifth level and max out at five hundred and sixty credits. Forty extra credits for this and that? It would be reasonable.

Nacho didn’t want to be reasonable. He wanted to take Crave for every credit he could. Jimmy would’ve wanted it that way. With that in mind, he’d have to needle Crave for an additional sixty credits to get all three of his Skills to fifth level.

When Crave eventually returned, he was flanked by Hogan and Whitney, both grinning at the cook. Nacho didn’t like the grins. He did like Crave easily agreeing to the extra sixty credits.

Crave authorized another transfer, and Nacho promptly leveled up all of his Skills. Just as a System message flashed before his eyes.

Current Credits: 103 (103 total Dinner Party pool) Transfers Possible! Party members in range!

Nacho’s heart leapt into his throat. Reuben and Brie were still alive; that was good. The bad news was that they were probably close enough to spy on the entrance to the Chaos Coop and were likely planning a rescue.

That would be fine, if they weren’t killed by Crave’s dirtbag friends. Nacho kept all emotion off his face, but Whitney stared at Nacho and giggled while Hogan did the talking. “You’re going to be with us for a while now, guy. Your old friends have been poking around up top, looking for you. Me, Whitney, and Suzy are just biding our time. First, we’re going to take out the chick with the hammer, then the moron in the leather helmet.”

Crave looked disgusted and left the room. He wasn’t actively stopping his evil underlings from being evil, which made the Assassin just as culpable. Nacho shrugged as nonchalantly as he possibly could. “Only the two out there?”

Hogan slapped him on the back. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

With a malicious grin, he and Whitney left a stunned Nacho alone in his kitchen, chained up tight. The cook’s heart felt like a dirty charcoal grill in his chest.

His friends were in danger, and he was literally locked in the kitchen.