The Flying Emporium

<> Severin assured an impatient dwarf and waved over Mylana, who was already heading towards the store’s front door. Instead, he led her inside the backroom, through the same hidden tunnel which Emily had used to slip past the customers who had been waiting outside, and over to the kitchen.

Where the next surprise waited for the woman.

“What are those?” The question was rhetorical in nature-clearly she recognized the various kitchen appliances and utensils as such, but she still expected some answer. A modern day, commercial kitchen was clearly not a sight anyone but Severin’s employees were accustomed to.

“It’s a design from back home,” he said truthfully.

Mylana readily accepted this explanation, her attention already captured by some other thing, but to Bandur this remark-Severin mentioning back home-had a whole other meaning, enough so that for the first time since the two newcomers had entered his kitchen, he actually looked up from his work to spare them a glance.

“Right, then. Want to give it a go?”

“To be honest, kitchen work isn’t exactly what-” she began, but hesitated as she reminded herself of her new position.

“Don’t worry. This won’t be permanent. I think. At least for now I plan to assign you where ever there is the most work. I think that should work for you as well, to get yourself familiarized with all aspects of the System?” Severin understood this situation had to be new and unusual for the old woman, after decades of being an independent adventurer and later a respected researcher; still, this wasn’t really a question; nor a suggestion. “I can always just reassign you.”

“Reassign...? Truly? And what about the level?”

“The sub-class level, you mean? It’s shared amongst all of us. No need to worry about that.”

“Right… reassigning classes… shared levels... of course…”

Desensitized as she may have been by now, those words were still hard for her to accept. But when she did accept them, she did so with renewed vigor.

“Haha. Well then. Let’s do this.”

When Severin then opened his menu and assigned the woman as a [Cook], he could have sworn someone was saying finally under their breath;

if that hadn’t just been his imagination, and if that complaining someone had in fact been a certain impatient dwarf, then that same dwarf would soon find their patience tested once again.

For the second time this day, Mylana felt something being loaded right into her brain.

Knowledge about the System’s officially sanctioned recipes, but also kitchen skills and cooking techniques necessary to recreate those dishes; skills that would take a regular person years, if not decades, to hone.

What it didn’t come with, however, was the knowledge of culinary theory, of how to make something new and tasty out of all these readily available ingredients.

But that was no excuse.

Now equipped with all this new knowledge, with access to the System’s pantry, and previously having peeked a glance at the [Tasks] menu, the woman’s next course of action wasn’t to help out Bandur, but instead...

“Flour... eggs… tomatoes … Mozza- some cheese...” she went through the list of available ingredients, and, “Milk… seasoning… wait, what? Milk? Really?” She turned around with a look of disbelief. Then opened some System menu to double check something.

“You guys... have milk? But not a single dish that actually contains milk? All while there is some quest asking you to come up with new recipes? Are you…” at this point she had to stop herself and took a deep, long breath.

“Surely there is something I’m missing, right? Maybe the reward...” With a swiftness that didn’t betray her inexperience with the System, she once again navigated its menus, and soon began to read out loud,

“Host will get to pick one item out of a randomly chosen assortment of products.

Limitless supply of selected item will be provided. Item in question does not require manual crafting.

Presented choice of items is not restricted by host’s currently learned professions.”

The more she spoke, the more tense her voice became; Bandur and Severin both could do nothing but sheepishly exchange looks.

“So, what’s your excuse?” the woman finally demanded, her arms crossed.

“I, ehm…”

“We…”

The two culprits began stammering, but were cut short.

“Forget it! Unbelievable. You two get the orders ready. I’ll take care of this and whip something up.”

Severin hesitated for a moment, but decided that right now was not the time to remind the newcomer of her position, after all. All of this had already much delayed their work even further; with a nod towards Bandur, he indicated to him to do as she said, while he himself also rolled up his sleeve and lent a hand. That, however, did not stop him from sneaking glances at Mylana and the work she was doing on the other side of the kitchen.

Two bowls. Both filled with a mixture of milk and whisked eggs, though from what he could make out, the ratios differed for both bowls differed.

The seasoning also differed.

Salt and pepper for the first. ‘Scrambled eggs,’ Severin figured.

The other with sugar. And…

“Slices of bread?!” he blurted out and thereby drew attention to himself.

“If you got enough time to stand there gawking, you could help me make some butter.”

“Butter?”

“Yes, butter. It’s made of milk. You know the-”

“Coming!” Not in the mood for a lecture, with a lot of the extra work Bandur had been complaining about already taken care of, and being quite curious as to what the old woman was coming up with over there, Severin let himself be volunteered.

Yet another twenty minutes later, with butter as a new ingredient unlocked though not counting towards the quest progression, and two mouthwatering dishes, one sweet, one savory, stood in front of the group. And those two dished did count towards the System issued task.

As such, before Severin could taste either the eggs or the dish Mylana insisted was called bronze’s feast and which Severin by now recognized to be French toast, a series of System notifications popped up and demanded everyone’s attention.

[Congratulation for your completion of the quest [Mix and Match I].

Please choose your reward from the following range of four randomly selected products.]

[Choice #1:

[Heavy Armor of Evolving Strength]

This reward comprises a full set of heavy armor with no class, stat, or level requirements for the wearer, other than its sheer weight.

Every part of the armor can be worn independently.

The stats of the equipment are dependent on the wearer’s level.]

What then followed were several sheets describing in great detail the stat growth of every individual piece of equipment, none of which Severin could make any sense of, but judging by Mylana’s impressed whistle, it was more than adequate.

Bandur seemed even more infatuated with the description of the heap of metal, calling it a beauty without having actually seen it, emphasizing how one would never again have to upgrade their gear and how he would definitely get one for himself even if he wasn’t an adventurer.

It was clear, if it was up to Bandur, they wouldn’t even take a look at the three alternatives.

[Choice #2:

[Taming collar] (Special)]]

“Special Grade?!” Mylana noticed immediately.

[This reward is an upgraded version of the [Taming collar] which usually only high-level [Tamers] who were lucky enough to find the corresponding skill scroll and materials could craft and subsequently use.

If put on a magical beast, makes it docile towards the collar’s owner.

Only creatures at most half the owner’s level can be tamed this way. A thus tamed creature’s level may never exceed that of their owner.]

“That is…”

“Flying drake’s as mounts for everyone!” For a moment, the dwarf seemed to have already forgotten the previous armor.

“Have you read the same thing I did? Or what level do you think those things usually are?”

Ahem

“Still should be able to find a good mount with this.”

“Really? That is your first thought? There are so many other… argh, forget it. Let’s keep going for now.”

And so they did.

[Choice #3:

[Scroll of arbitrary improvement]

On use, randomly either upgrades an already learned skill or grants a class related new one.

It is random which skill is thus upgraded or granted.

Limited to one activation per person.]

“What the…?” This time, it was Mylana who couldn’t quite believe her eyes. Multiple times, she had to re-read the notification until she finally managed to form a coherent sentence.

“You have to get this one! No question about it.” She seemed even more impressed by this [Scroll of arbitrary improvement] than Bandur had been with any of the other two previous choices; or than Severin, who secretly shared Bandur’s idea of getting his own flying mount.

“You guys have no idea what this means. And how could you. You are too low-leveled. No offense.

But… any high-level classbearer would kill for this. Literally, I assure you.

Do you have any idea how long it has been since I got my last new skill? Yeah. Neither do I.

And not because I’m going senile, you hear!

It doesn’t even matter that it’s random. Seriously. Even upgrading an existing one would be indescribably valuable. Depending on the skill, it might even be preferable. This is so exciting! And without downside. You simply mustn’t be impatient and use it while you still have enough room to grow naturally. But aside from that...”

If her intention had been to convince Severin to settle for this third option, then she had achieved the exact opposite. Worse enough that the armor could realistically only be sold once to each customer, at least it could actually be used.

Whereas using this scroll would truly be a waste, unless one had reached an actual roadblock. He certainly wasn’t tempted using it, even in the slightest. Not if he only got one shot.

‘And by the time I actually might want to use it, I might be able to just create something like this myself. After all, according to the System, all those rewards are things I might at one point learn to craft myself.’

“Let’s first check out the last one.” And so this time it was he who had to urge her.

[Choice #4:

[Communication Set]

This set consists of two separate items.

The first is a small [Transmitter crystal], capable of recording one’s surroundings. It can be linked to other [Transmitter crystals] within a 200 meter radius. Recorded sound can be shared between such linked up [Transmitter crystals].]

“That’s kinda… disappointing.”

“I agree. Depending on its design, it might proof useful in some fights to coordinate movements. Especially for newbies. But…“

“Right. And it somehow seems strictly inferior to the telepathy skill we have access to. I don’t really see the point of it. Certainly can’t compare to a good piece of armor, I say.”

Mylana and Bandur had already dismissed the fourth choice, and either had already forgotten about the existence of a second item in the [Communication Set] or simply didn’t bother to check it out. But Severin hadn’t. Even though his own enthusiasm for this last reward option was already dwindling as well, his eyes kept moving, scanning the following words.

And then, as a child of 21st century earth, Severin’s breath quickened.

[The other item of the set is a dedicated [Receiver]. It is able to receive the transmissions of paired [Transmitter crystals]. This transmission is not restricted by the distance between [Transmitter crystals] and the [Receiver].

The dedicated receiver is able to receive both sound and imagery.]